MEComposing

When I found out that Goldilocks, in partnership with Nuffnang, is holding a blog contest, I really got all kinds of excited. After all, here is a product I literally grew up with. So I racked my brain on what to write about... Will it be the sago't gulaman that I insisted on having all the time I was pregnant? Or will I write about the mais con yelo that is the perpetual pasalubong my sister and cousin ask for when I make them babysit my son so I can have ME time?

Or would I write about their spaghetti, one I insisted on having every afternoon that year I started working, just because I could finally afford to eat out? I remember having to spend double the transport fare then because i'd get off at their Paco branch, which was halfway to where I lived. I only stopped when they closed down their foodshop.

Oh, there are so many Goldilocks products that I can write about that featured in special moments of my life. But i'd be crazy to write about them when, in my heart of hearts, Goldilocks has always meant one thing for me: cake, specifically, mocha cake. Even my family would sometimes marvel at how I can eat it, day in and day out, for weeks on end. My cravings last for months, you see, so when it's mocha cake that I want, it's really a mocha cake binge. And I don't mean mocha rolls because I preferred the thicker icing on the cake, and I am a slave to sugar flowers.

(proof that I am a slave to sugar flowers?)

There was a time that I shared this obsession of mine with a nephew. He just really loved it too! My then-boyfriend (now-husband) would often chuckle and kiss my forehead everytime I'm eating a slice and my darling nephew would ask specifically for the sugar flowers or the icing... or the last bite. Ouch! But sharing it with him was of course, the more important thing (plus I learned to buy extra sugar flowers, hehe).





I even remember getting excited and creative on what i'd have written on the cake. But even if I, or then-bf, bought the cake for me, we'd still tell my nephew the cake was for him and he should blow out the candle (yes, I insisted on the free candles!) before it melts on the cake. Sometimes, we'd even really sing "Happy Birthday" for him.

Yes, we doted on him very much. How could we not, he was the cutest, most adorable person for us then!

Which is why Goldilocks cakes became all the more special for us... for me. It was not just part of our celebrations (where I make sure to order Triple Delight flavor cake just so I can give my family a break from the mocha), it was something that we used to make my nephew's everyday more special.





So when Pyro was confined in October 2005 for a tumor found in his lung, I brought him a slice of cake (because he was admitted on my birthday) and shared it with him on his hospital bed.

And when he was admitted at PCMC for his first chemotherapy session, we bought him a whole cake, made him blow the candle and ask Papa Jesus to make him better.



And during his fight, one that took over a year, I kept buying him cake. It was one of the things he could still appreciate, one of the things he could still keep down, something he believed that I alone provide.

*~*

Now, I still buy the biggest mocha cake I can get for his birthday. We bring it to the cemetery instead, however, to be distributed to the kids living there. It has become one of the rituals that has allowed us to move on, sharing his favorite cake with the less fortunate as a testament to how much loved he was, and how greatly missed.



So if i'd forever be indebted to friends and family (especially the Berks and my husband) for seeing my family through our loss, and if i'd forever be grateful to all those who helped Pyro meet his wrestling idol Batista, and if I can still not see Tweety or Spongebob and not remember Py, how can I not celebrate Goldilocks in the role it played in making my late nephew's short life sweeter?

*~*

I won't lie. Indeed, for a time, I couldn't eat mocha cake after my nephew passed away. It felt sacrilegious to enjoy something he used to enjoy so immensely!

But in time, we recovered from our grief. Plus, God blessed me with a new nephew to buy cakes for.


Pyro's brother Ice, 1st birthday

*~*

You're the 1 Goldilocks, because you help me in my role of doting, loving, privileged aunt! You're the 1 Goldilocks, because you helped me cheer up a much loved, much missed nephew of mine.