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With my older cousin; Taken during my Philippines trip, December 2022

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Makeup has been a way that my older cousin, Chesca, (pictured above) have bonded. When she first visited America and I when visited our hometown for the first time in 10 years, the first and last thing we did was play with makeup. We also bonded over the fact that with did our Tita Rita's makeup for parties. During this previous trip back, I ended up doing my aunt's makeup for a Christmas party. As I was doing her makeup, we bonded over our love of makeup products and she would tell me about the times Chesca would do her makeup too. Something that I remember my aunt saying is that she was really happy to have two nieces who were her personal makeup artists. Whenever I think back to that memory, it makes me happy that she trusted me and my cousin enough to do her makeup for big parties, but also that it was an indirect way that my cousin and I bonded. When I see my cousin, it makes me happy that I will still be able to have bonding moments with her, but it will be bittersweet that we will have that memory of us doing our Tita's makeup.

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Taken during my trip home to the Philippines, December 2022

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Whenever I see a cat I think about my Tita (Auntie) Rita who passed away this summer. During her lifetime, she always had a love for cats, especially her cat Valentine. While my Tita lived in New York and worked as a nurse, she treated Val like her child since she did not have children of her own. I remember hearing stories and seeing on Facebook of all the adventures she would take Val on and I always found it adorable how much love she had for Valentine. When Valentine passed away a few years back, I remember my aunt being devastated about her baby passing away. However, it never stopped her love for cats. When she retired, my aunt decided to move back to the Philippines. During my trip back home to the Philippines this past December, I was able to meet up with my Aunt for the first time in years and she told me all the stories of her being in New York. A story that particularly stuck out to me was of all the cats she "adopted" in Cebu, where she lived. When I asked what she meant, she told me that she would leave food out for the few stray cats outside of her house which eventually turned into 20+ stray cats waiting outside her house to be fed. Now that she has passed, I know she is reunited with Val but I can't help but think of her when I see a cat wandering.