It’s just another Sunday morning in Juan’s home in Antipolo. It’s 6 o’clock, time for his morning cup of coffee by the bench on their balcony, overlooking a beautiful city skyline view. Later at around 7 AM, he’ll go with her wife to Cogeo to buy some food for their apos who came over for the weekend. By 9 AM, their food is prepared and their whole family will share a sumptuous breakfast.
Juan is a 68-year old retiree who chose to settle in their ancestral home in Antipolo with his wife. He was a former Vice President of a well-known telecommunications company in Makati. He has 2 sons, an engineer and an architect, who currently resides in Pasig and Quezon City, respectively. The home they have in Antipolo now is a fruit of Juan’s more than 40 years of hardwork in the corporate sector. He spent years paying for a lot and building up his dream home until he finally completed his dream home more than five years ago.
Juan enjoys his retirement with his wife in Antipolo. He plays golf with his childhood friends twice a week, and he and his wife landscape their yard and grow plants to make good use of their time. Occasionally, they also visit their favorite restaurant, the Crescent Moon Café, and meet the Abuevas, who are Juan’s close friends.
Rewind to last Friday, Juan and his wife were accompanied by their eldest son to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City for their monthly check-up. His resident doctor is assigned to this hospital, and he wouldn’t want anyone else to check on him so every month, they go to Quezon City, which is only 30 minutes away from Antipolo.
On some days, Juan also enjoys cooking the family’s favorite, Kare-Kare, and he calls on his sons to pick up some from Antipolo to bring to his apos. His sons don’t mind doing this as their place is really accessible from the Metro. Once the dish arrives at his apos, they share the meal together through video calls. With this, Juan’s apos get very excited of what their lolo will prepare when they visit him again on the weekend.
When his apos are in Antipolo, Juan brings out his old but gold board games, and teaches them how to play. Their favorite is the Monopoly, and they spend hours playing it until they get called for merienda, with the all-time favorite suman and juice on the table. Juan also bonds with his apos during movie nights. They binge-watch their favorite Netflix series until they fall asleep.
It is indeed the prime of Juan’s life – free from the stresses of the corporate world, and happily looking back on a life of achievement, well-spent on career, family and friends.