This is my Lola Rosalina 🇵🇭 The Matriarch & Hawaiian Queen 🌺 As we've started Filipino American History Month 🇵🇭 l've reflected a lot on my roots and culture. My lola is the embodiment of resilience, optimism, warmth & love. "Did you eat yet? You need to eat you're getting too skinny." And before I could even disagree on the "skinny" part she'd already have a plate in front of my face. "I also made you some ba-on (food/lunch) to take with you to school" That's my Lola. Let me tell you a little about her story. A Hawaii-native, she was visiting the Philippines with her family when her month-long vacation turned into four decades due to the start of World War II. I've always known her to be the quiet gentle grandma, yet she is one of the most RESILIENT people I know. As a teen during WWII, she remained silent while being stabbed by a passing enemy soldier's bayonet, an act which ultimately saved her life. She remembers the American servicemen passing through her barrio giving the children their food rations and the very clothes off their back. At the end of the war in 1945, she married my grandfather--having 8 children together. She was able to return to her birth town in 1980, when she and three of her children--including @jxmag & @rachelifornia mother and @jenntonio & @michayles mother--moved to Honolulu. She is the OG plant mama! 👵🏽🌺🌴 And in TRUE Lola Rosie fashion she worked on an orchid farm while there. We have a VERY RICH culture (the parties, the language, the food, etc.) I am PROUD to be Filipino. I am PROUD of my roots and culture. I am PROUD of the history and heritage. 🫡🇵🇭 • • • • • • • #StrongFamilyRoots #FilipinaOnTheRise #FilipinoAmericanHistoryMonth #FAHM #Philippines #Hawaii #LolaRosalina #LolaRosie #ThatsMyLola