My Professor in Phenomenology said that we will really never actually know our birth date (so as our death date). True! Simulation of facts is always possible and we can’t really verify them.  However, whenever that birth date was, it must have happened in a day – our birthday and the story of it is a curious object of every man’s wanderings.

I never asked my mom what happened the day I was born.  This is because I have always been independent and very nosy.  Yes, I am the kind of person who takes pleasure in any process that involves investigation.  Of course, the objectivity required is always tarnished by emotions and prejudices because the object involves myself.  From old pictures and some album annotations, i was able to coin my BIRTHDAY STORY.

My mom’s birthday is the day after my birthday.  It means that the day she was in pain of giving birth, the next day would be the anniversary of her own birth and giving birth is a mortal risk to every mother.  The people around her brought a cake which reads “HAPPY BIRTHDAY in advance.”  I feel those words doubled the pressure:  What if tomorrow never comes?  I am her eldest and it must have been very scary for my mom to experience her first childbirth.

This could have been her death cake!  She was really never good in giving childbirth.  Me and my brother are “Cesarean  babies.”  This cake must have been presented to her before or at lunchtime.  They knew that she had to undergo a major operation the day before her birthday.

The annotation in the album says that at exactly 3:40 in the afternoon, I came out to the world!  I came out from a person whose life was in danger at that moment.  A LIFE begotten from another who was willing to take the risk and pain. A Yin from a Yang.  A LIFE-generating sacrificial and suicidal Love!  What if she chose convenience for herself?  As you can see, my bloody emerging head was (and still is) bigger than the usual.  The operation went fine and my mother had to rest for 3 days before she became functional again.

This was taken a month after. Priceless!

Have you said ‘Thank you’ to your mom lately?