Criticizing the in-laws’ gift as ‘rustic and dirty’, the mother-in-law threw it in the trash, but five minutes later she had to pick it up because…
Hated and despised by her mother-in-law, Nina was also miserable. Lorenzo’s mother – everyone called her Mama Lourdes – was a sweet talker: she never scolded or scolded her daughter-in-law, and was always sweet as sugar cane, so anyone who looked at her thought Nina was “indulged”. But many of her words made Nina feel like she was being rubbed salt in the heart, the kind of “sweet honey kills flies”.

Nina knew Lorenzo since her university days in Manila. He was from a townhouse in Quezon City, his parents were retired civil servants, and his house was spacious and three-story. Nina was born in Nueva Ecija, where they were farmers. To get married, they went through many difficulties: Mama Lourdes did not like “balae” from the provinces. But because Lorenzo was determined, and “the boat was already set”, she had to accept Nina as her daughter-in-law when she was two months pregnant – of course she was not in a good mood.

Mama Lourdes loved her grandchildren very much. Nina used that as a reason to hope that one day her daughter would continue the close relationship between her and her mother-in-law.

Ever since Tala started eating solid foods, Nanay Rosa in Nueva Ecija started growing vegetables and raising free-range chickens to send to the city. She watched the news and saw stories about dirty food, so she was impatient and insisted that Lorenzo go to Cubao bus station twice a week to pick up the goods. Green vegetables, eggs, chicken, even onions and garlic… whatever she could collect, Nanay Rosa would pack it all.

Nina was afraid that her mother would have a hard time, so she refused many times, but she didn’t listen, always secretly sending them on the bus first and then calling her son-in-law to pick them up. One time, almost all the eggs broke because the road was bumpy, Nina hugged the bundle of eggs and cleaned them up, feeling sad—being a daughter-in-law far away and not being able to take care of her mother made her even more tired.

While Balae was so kind-hearted, Mama Lourdes thought that people were “slandering” her family. Whenever Lorenzo was about to go to the wharf to get the goods, she would sarcastically say, “Can’t this family support their children and grandchildren that they keep sending them over there?” Every time the goods arrived, Nina and her husband would store them and cook them themselves; Mama Lourdes hardly touched them, buying them separately at the palengke market.

One time… she rummaged through the cupboard and saw a bag of rotten tomatoes, and she made a fuss: “Why bother with cheap, dirty, bacteria-producing things!” From that day on, she looked at the bags of country goods with an annoyed look. Nina felt sorry for her mother so she called to tell her to stop sending them. But right at that moment, Nanay Rosa had just picked the first batch of bayabas (guava) of the season, crispy and fragrant—knowing that Mama Lourdes liked that dish, she insisted on sending them out.

Lorenzo opened the bag and took out a huge bag of bayabas. Mama Lourdes frowned: “They’re all crushed, how can we eat them? Bayabas from the countryside or from the city, what’s the difference, why bother her like this?” After saying that, she gathered the bayabas and the slightly bruised vegetables into a garbage bag and took them out. Nina stood there, sad but not knowing what to say.

That night, when Nina was on duty at the store, Lorenzo called in panic: Tala vomited and had diarrhea; the whole family rushed her to the emergency room at the district hospital. The doctor diagnosed mild food poisoning. Unfortunately, Lorenzo and his father also had stomach aches. Looking back at the meal, it turned out that the toge (bean sprouts) Mama Lourdes bought at the market that day was not hygienic.

Nina hugged her child and cried. Mama Lourdes sat beside her, her face blank. Tatay Ernesto (Lorenzo’s father) walked in and out, annoyed:
“She’s been fine all this time. Grandma went to the market to cook porridge for her, but she’s like this. Vegetables and fruits here are a matter of luck. Luckily, balae sent clean products, but grandma rejected them. Now, how miserable!”

Mama Lourdes was silent, just holding Tala’s hand tightly. Nina coaxed:
“Don’t worry, Mom and Dad, it was probably just an accident. It’s my fault too—I should have prepared things for Tala and the whole family before going to work. Mom goes to the market, and I don’t always know where to buy clean things.”

A few days later, Tala recovered. From that time on, Mama Lourdes stopped being nosy and made things less difficult. Perhaps she realized that Nina didn’t blame her, and was always more tolerant.

The story ended with a small but heartwarming change: Mama Lourdes took the initiative to send money back to Nueva Ecija, asking Nanay Rosa to grow vegetables and raise chickens as she wanted so that the whole family could have clean food. The two sides of the balae went from being polite to being friendly; and Nina—every time she opened the cupboard and saw bags of local vegetables and crispy bayabas—was secretly grateful to her daughter Tala, because it was that illness that brought the whole family together.