In fact, I am certain you recall a life very different than the one you might expect to encounter if you were to return. The old hacienda may still be in ruins, the countryside overrun by communists, and San Pablo more crowded and dirty than we ever knew it to be, but my house in Forbes Park has been expanded since you last visited. Indeed, I might say that the neighborhood generally has never looked better. There are more diplomats and embassies, the church has undergone renovations, and we now belong to the Polo Club, a place you may recall the Americans formerly did not allow nonwhite Filipinos to join, where you can get a facial and the boys could go swimming. And though Manila has more traffic and people than ever, armed guards keep the poor people and crime out.

Millie also found some very old pictures of you and Dina at the hacienda. Lolo Bien’s house was already run down, almost in ruins, but the porch remained intact and Mommy had fitted you two in nice dresses. I believe these were boarding school uniforms, so perhaps you were about to part for the last time. Many of our cousins were there, including some of the rowdier ones such as Bong and Checerida, and there is a photo of all of us, perhaps twenty, in front of the old white chapel. It had no cracks then and, framed by coconut trees, could have been an expensive resort. In one picture you held a rosary that dangled from one hand, and I believe it was the one with beads of silver which Lola gave you before she died, and which you could not be parted from. Everyone remembers the sight of you with those beloved beads in the chapel. We all thought you would become a nun, but instead you became an American! You looked very happy in these pictures, so I hope that the Philippines holds some nice memories for you, no matter that the austerity and dependency of our subsequent years may have provided for you unpleasant memories. Indeed, our country must have seemed a sad and unpromising place to raise children then, and for most Filipinos it is even worse now, but my circumstances have improved.