When Feyma was a child, the family lived in Sarangani Province. Actually, it was part of South Cotabato Province back in those days, but back in the 90’s the area broke from South Cotabato and formed a new Province, Sarangani.
Until recently, I had never visited Feyma’s childhood home, but a few weeks back I went there. One of the most interesting things that I saw there was the old Family Home. I had heard Feyma describe this place so many times, and I really looked forward to seeing it. It was a lot smaller than what I had imagined based on her description, but you could clearly see that the house was a quality place in it’s day.
The house has been abandoned for about 30 years now, but when Feyma visited the memories that came to her were very real and alive. I enjoyed seeing the place very much, it somehow brought me closer to Feyma, I think.
Hi Bob. Good video.
I agree Feyma's childhood house is indeed a big house (compared to an average Filipino dwelling). It's sad that it was abandoned but by the looks of it, it looks like it can easily be restored.
I will comment further and this may not be the case on Feyma's ancestral home.
This can be true anywhere in the world:
Father and mother get old. Children leave. Initially the old folks are able to take care of their affairs. Then their financial productivity dwindles. Savings are spent. The trees grow, unpruned. Fences are not fixed. Eventually the inside of the house is not maintained as the old folks get disabled and termites have formed critical mass.
The situation is worsened of course if the main bread winner gets incapacitated or dies. This is usually the man of the house. It's just too dangerous for Mom to stay alone. She moves in with one of the children. So 'we'll just lock up old the house and visit it once in a while to check.' The house of course slowly crumbles.
Filipinos are a sentimental bunch. Children get together when Mom and/or Dad have/has died, and everybody will agree that the ancestral house will be a common property to be used by any children who will be in town. This again is one of those good intentions but practically unworkable. Without real accountability, the house maintenance suffers…
My two cents with ancestral homes therefore is to sell it. Any children of course will have the chance of first refusal to buy it. If there are two or more interested parties then either give it to the highest bidder or draw a lottery. Some children will by consensus give the ownership of the ancestral house to the child who took care of Mom and Dad. A stipulation can be made in papers again that any of the rest of the children will have the first refusal in case the new owner sells out.
However it's done, if the children wants to preserve the ancestral home, there should only be one owner. Disposition of the ownership of the house should be done right away when Mom and Dan are no longer able to maintain it. This easier said than done of course but it should be debated and people should be educated.
kamusta bob
thats a very interesting place that feyma grew up.im shocked really that no one lives there.i have seen alot of houses,huts and so forth that looked abondened in phil.and to my amazement 4 people would come out the door of some old hut with very nice cloths,watches and looking like they have a formal dinner somewhere.i guess nice cloths are more important to some poeple then maintanance to thier house.or mabe alot cheaper huh.why not fix that old house for your children bob or even for a cottage getaway for u and the family.i bet feyma and her family would love that.hope all is well my friend.
salamat bob
oops bob
what i mean by being shocked nobody lives there ,i mean nobody has fixed the house to live in.hehehe
salamat
😆 😉
Wow, that is very interesting Bob. I bet it did bring back good memories for Feyma.
When I get to Maasin, we will be renovating an old nipa house…adding a second floor and redoing a lot of the interior. It was the old house that Rose was raised in, and she wants to get it back in shape to live in.
So was nice to see this house, and where Feyman grew up as a child.
Thanks Bob,
Danny
Hi Bob!
It's been awhile I haven't contributed to this site. I've been following it everyday though. Again, it was nice seeing you with Feyma. Teddy extended his greetings to both of you.
Regarding Feyma's ancestral house, it reminded me of the house I grew up too. When my father was still alive, he has few hectares of land that he already subdivided to us, his children, "just" 9 of us. 🙂 Which I think was a smart idea. However, when my father passed away, we, the siblings, decided to "distribute" my parent's remaining property; and that includes the ancestal house. The house ended up to me and to my unmarried older sister who takes care of our mother who has alzheimers. The rest of my siblings have their own family and their own place to live. This way, at least, my sister and I are responsible for the house.
Initially, we were tyring to restore the house, like Feyma's house, it's also a 2-level house. However, at the end, for several reasons, we decided to just totally start from scratch. We built a onel level house. THis way also my mom doesn't have to go up and down the stairs. Though it wasn't the same house; it was still on the same land. Though it's a modern house, it's still like an ancestral home to us because if the whole family gathered – my mother, her children, her grandchildren and great grandchiild – that's where we get together. AND, of course, we still have the same neighbors. So, it's like the old times!
Thanks for the video Bob.
Hi Everybody – I just wanted to apologize to everybody for not replying to these comments on this particular post. Unfortunately, on the day that I posted this, I had a bit of a health issue, which made it impossible to type. You read about that more tomorrow in a special Saturday column.