sisters

After her mother left her when she was six, her sister and she were placed in my grandmother’s care.  Being the oldest Child, she was supposed to watch over her younger sister.  Can this grandmother, who was living under their oldest uncle’s roof, take full care of them?  Does she treat the sisters like one of her children?  Everything was fog and mist to the six and four years old sibling. 

For the next five years, they were always considered to be somebody else in their two cousin’s eyes.  Gone were their parents, the sisters were left to have only each other.  Harbor by their grandmother, they still felt like beggars, as the grandmother has to expand her care over all her seven grandchildren. 

Inside their minds, “What is future?” became the daily question.  Justice was unknown to them, as their older cousins had the right to beat them everyday, and everything lies at the plea of the cousins’s mercy.  “King” was the title of one of the cousin while the sisters were his servants.  Lost in the world, the sisters learned earlier on how to depend only on themselves.  More than anything else, all they wished for was a normal family like any others.  No other request was needed. 

On the first day of school, they learned that the only escape and hope would be within this building.  Pouring all their heart and effort into schoolwork, they knew this would be the only way to impress their hosts and their unknown parents on the other side of the globe.  “Quitting” became a word that cannot be found in their dictionaries.  Reducing their world to home and school, the school became their second home.  Seeing a expansion of opportunities to their horizon, the sisters worked harder.  To them, there was always a brighter side to the world as long as one works hard on it.  Until their goal was met, they would never give up.  Via this determination, they were known throughout the neighborhood.  “Wow.  XX is so smart!” became the mark of every corner.  Yet, this was not satisfying enough to them.  Zipping through time, one would never forget the sisters’ work ethic and strong determination.