Reach Out and Touch Someone

It was 6:30 AM when the alarm went off. My first thoughts were 'What time is it in London?'

It was the birthday of my aunt Tita SIS (big sis) yesterday. She lives in London. I wanted to give her a call to greet her a happy birthday.

Last time I checked, about lunchtime yesterday, it was 1:30 AM in London, Tuesday, 01 March. Nobody calls at that ungodly hour unless it is an emergency. Then I forgot to check the time again until 01 March passed in my time zone. I had gone to bed on Tuesday and by the time I woke up, it was Wednesday already.

When I consulted the World Clock of my Nokia, it said that it is still 01 March in London. Just my luck, it was still Tita SIS's birthday in her corner of the world! In fact, it was a decent 7:30 PM in London at that very moment. (Hurrah!)

I quickly brought her record up from my Address Book button and hit the CALL button.

I was happy that she answered after the first ring. We were able to chat for a bit.

She sounds just like my mom. What did I expect? She IS Mother's sister. (I have often been told that I sound like my siblings. In fact, on one occasion, I was told that I sound like my BROTHER!)

After talking to her, thoughts of being connected to siblings crossed my mind. I know for a fact that Mother loves her sister a lot and in spite being oceans apart, they are still very close. I love all my siblings dearly. Mother knows Tita SIS's number by heart. Sadly, I can't say the same for me and my siblings' telephone numbers. (In my defense, I do have the disadvantage of having nine siblings while Mother just has one.)

When we were younger, Mother used to have our birthdays listed in the back of a family photo she kept in her handbag. There are six of us married now and our combined efforts have brought thirteen children to this world. I think Mother would need to keep an 8R photo in her bag if she wanted to retain the list in the back of a family picture, not to mention that she'd need a pretty big handbag to put it in.

I am happy to announce that I know all the birthdays of my siblings and children. I'm not saying that I will still remember all these dates in twenty years but at the moment I can still say that I remember these. However, I must admit that this is the extent of my memory, and that my memory has a lot of support in the form of my Book of Days, Facebook, YahooGroups calendars, etc.

Unlike Mother, I would not be able to dial any of my siblings' numbers even if my life depended on it (except maybe for Z's because she still lives at home). I do not even know what time it is in their sides of the world. Fortunately, technology has come to my rescue. My cellphone takes care of both these issues. Family members' telephone numbers are in my cellphone Address Book while the World Clock tells me what time it is in different parts of the world. Aside from my phone, I have back-ups -- a spreadsheet with family members addresses and telephone numbers, plus the ever reliable (as long as there is electricity and the internet connection is up), World Time found in the side of this blog c/o timeanddate.com.

So (belated) Happy Birthday to Tita SIS and a special thanks to Alexander Graham Bell.

(No, this is not the family picture Mother keeps in her bag with all of our birthdays. This picture was taken on Father and Mother's 25th wedding anniversary in 1986. I think this was the last one we have that has all twelve of us together. )