Our family is just like that. I live together with my mom, dad, my younger brother, my grandmother, and my very old aunt.
Back when i was a kid, both my mom and dad worked. My dad worked as a ship engineer, and my mother worked as an employee of the government. The people who would look after me at the time would be both my grandmother and my aunt.
The time i have spent with my granny and my aunt is equivalent to how old i was.
However, when my little brother was born, I was 12 at the time. I've noticed that, the usual attention i was getting was slowly fading away and responsibilities as the older brother kept piling up.
Sometimes i would even fight with my parents, my aunt, and my grandmother for very selfish reasons. I was never proud of it, in fact, i felt very sorry about it. But, i was too stubborn to notice how wrong i was.
When i was in my second year of college, i came home very late. No one was home except for my grandmother and my younger brother.
"Granny, where's everybody?"
It turns out that my aunt was hospitalized. That was a shock to me, especially since we just had a fight over how i should treat my younger brother better.
I couldn't do anything but wait at the time, i didn't know which hospital she was brought to.
It was 12 midnight when my parents were able to come home. They said my aunt was suffering from a terrible lung disease so she was hospitalized. After a few minutes of grabbing some food and spare clothes, my parents left again.
The next day i went back to school like normal, this time my aunt was back, but she had an apparatus to help her breathe. I couldn't look at her directly, i gave her her medicine that was prescribed by the doctor. Slowly after she went to sleep, i noticed she was having trouble breathing again. I woke up dad so she could bring her back to the hospital
The day after, she was still in the hospital. Even when i did know which one she was now, i couldn't visit her due to the pile-up of the homework i had at the time. So the day just passed by with me praying for my aunt.
The next day, i got home early, and waited for news from my parents. Someone else came, it was my other aunt, she gave me the news, my aunt passed away. My aunt passed away without me ever saying sorry or that i loved her.
I never showed how much i appreciated my aunt...
A week went by and the funeral was already being set-up. All the while, i haven't shed a tear. I made the funeral video dedicated to my grandmother, still not a single tear was shed.
It was only when i was made to sprinkle holy water on my aunt's casket, my aunt laid there, cold and lifeless. She was dressed neatly, white clothes that matched her white skin, and her white hair. I started to wonder why my aunt never married.
Suddenly, my tears started to flow, memories with my aunt started flash, and i couldn't help myself. I ran to the break room to hide my tears from the crowd.
I cried... My face was a horrible mess, i couldn't stop crying. Pathetic isn't it? A grown man crying like a newborn baby...
My cousins noticed, they went to the break room and caught me crying.
All of them, walked towards me and started to hug me, and cried together with me.
Even now, i would still cry whenever i remembered my aunt.
My mother would sometimes talk to me, how i shouldn't feel sad. The times i couldn't visit, my aunt understood. Mom told me, my aunt loved me like a son. She forgave me for being stubborn, she forgave me for being selfish, she forgave me for being me.
It's funny how it's always said but least understood: You never know what you have until you lose it.
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