'My aunt won't give
me my mama's things'

Dear Tita,

My parents died in a bus accident when I was only eight years old. My mother's sister, Tita Cora, took me and my brother Jim, to stay with her family here in Bacolod. I didn't want to leave our house in Iloilo where I grew up, but my aunt insisted. She sold my parents' properties and told me that the money would be used for our studies. Before our house was sold, she got my mother's antiques and jewelry, saying that she would keep them for me when I grow up. I knew that my mother had lots of nice jewelry because she used to show them to me when she was still alive.

While we were studying here, my aunt kept us on a very tight budget and she complained about how expensive our schooling was. I could hardly buy the things I needed and my clothes were from the ukay-ukay because Tita Cora didn't want to spend money on us. How I envied my classmates whose parents were still alive and who showed their kids so much love. Tita Cora was mean to us and she always made us feel that we were a big burden on them. Years passed and I took up a caregivers course (Tita Cora wouldn't let me study nursing as it was too expensive, she said) .

After I finished my studies, I met Monching, a nice young man who courted me. I fell in love with him and after a year, we decided to get married. A few weeks before our wedding, I asked Tita Cora about my mother's antiques and jewelry that she once promised to give me. I was so shocked when she got mad and told me that it was all gone - she had to sell them to pay for all our expenses. I couldn't believe what she told me as I knew she got all the money from my parents' insurance and the sale of their properties. She got mad and called me an ingrate, shouting at me so that I had to leave her house.

I am now staying with a friend here in Bacolod. I feel so sad that my aunt could be this mean. I would like to get my mother's things as they meant a lot to me. Please advise me what to do.

UNLUCKY ORPHAN

Dear Unlucky Orphan,

Greed is such an evil thing. It drives people to commit foul deeds. You could consult a lawyer to see how you can have a proper accounting of your parents' insurance money and the sale of their properties. In that way you could find out if your aunt is telling the truth when she says that all your money is gone. It is unfortunate that you and your brother are the victims of your aunt's greed. People like her should remember that "what goes around, comes around." It's called "karma".

TITA

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