Being the bigger person at 5 feet tall

My mother is short.

She stands tall at 4’10- a whole head shorter than I.

No, not short, just Filipina veined

Or Piñoy for short.

Shortsighted but too vain to wear her glasses.

Her sleep cycle is short-

Even shorter than mine;

She somehow always finds time for another short chore,

Or a short errand before work,

Takes a short bus ride there-

She does not drive

But boi, does she have it.

Too short to see over the dashboard

A short drive some 20 years ago

Short sighted her desire to try at the wheel again.

The list of things I know of her is short.

A formerly fractured kinship knotted like tangled angel spaghetti.

Now seeks to slowly be unraveled.

We had once shared the same

Short fuse

She would cut the pancit or spaghetti noodles short-

I could never twirl those ribbons.

And it felt like both of us were running with scissors,

Patience in short supply,

It turns out I too had been short sighted.

I failed to truly see the short straws she had been drawn

She is often subject to my father’s short temper.

She has only returned to the motherland on a few short trips over the past 30 years,

Our archived ancestry is short.

When I asked her about it,

Her words fell short.

She spoke of lives cut short by way of

Morbidity, mortality,

and her shortcoming in recalling thoughts.

Some sorrows are not short lived-

They carry through to each passing generation

And I had selfishly reminded her of hers.

My previous messages to her had been short and sweet;

We have only been amicable for a few short years

You see, repairing frayed knots is like cutting off your split ends instead of chopping your hair short.

Hustling care and kindness is no short term commitment-

Patience and understanding is vital.

I am no longer willing to be short sighted,

No longer prepared to bite off more than I can chew,

No longer capable of selling either one of ourselves short.

That night, shortly after my question was asked,

She cut the conversation short.

Uncharacteristically, she said she was tired-

It was 9:30pm.

A short end to a long day it seemed.

It took a short train of thought to realise it was not a need for sleep that had exhausted her.

There was no shortcut to unpacking all that grief.

Long story short,

Nanay is as complicated as our relationship has been.

Yet nanay is growing,

Nanay wears her glasses more,

Nanay is learning she need not always make herself look shorter by crouching down to help others to their feet.

Nanay is open to the idea of me teaching her to drive,

Though not for a short while.

My own shortcomings have sold her short,

But now she sits on the shortlist of icons

Whom I admire, whom I respect.

She is a queen,

Her gift is a secret,

They call her Vic-Vic for short,

I call her Little Vicky.

Nowadays, I write about her often so that these short stories of ours

Will not be forgotten.

I hope that the De La Cruz, Importante, Sareño narrative and name

Does not get cut short here.

My name is Charlotte Laurasia Importante Sareño Raymond, but my mail

reads Charlotte Raymond for short. I am the daughter of Victoria

Importante Sareño Raymond, the granddaughter of Felicidad Importante

Sareño and Prudence Emile Rita (nee Forbes) Raymond and the maternal

great-granddaughter of Teofila de La Cruz Importante.

I hope that my via my short scriptures of us,

Nanay’s short stature is seen at new heights.

I hope, that despite her 4’10 frame,

In sharing these short stories,

People might stop blocking her from view,

And finally start to see her.