Imprenta

Today I accompanied my dad to the Doctor at Mission Hospital, for his follow-up. Everything was looking better and I am really happy. Then afterwards we went to grab something to eat and went to the grocery to buy some supplies. Just when I thought we were heading home, my dad said he wanted to go to imprenta (our printing press business office) to check on the work that he is having done for a client. So we went. Everything seemed the same on the outside. My Grandmothers house still looked almost the same as it looked when I was growing up — when my Grand mother was still alive. There are still a number of cars parked in the garage and everything seemed fine. As I stepped out of the car and walked slowly with my dad to the office, that’s when it hit me. Loneliness.

That office used to be filled with busy people, all sorts of machinery noises could be heard when it was still within business hours. You will barely hear the voices of people talking as it is being drowned out of the noisy machines that are busy at work. But today, today was so different. The old office wallpapers was already torn and decaying, the tables seem so old and lonely, it looked so run down. The only thing left that still has not changed was the portrait of my grand mother and grand father still hanging on the wall. The printing area was empty, and sad. When I was younger I remember going to that place and seeing a good number of people busy with paper collation, printing, stapling and gluing, but today, I barely saw a soul at work. The room that was previously filled with heavy machines and happily working people has become nothing but a memory, today the place is almost empty, the machines have been sold, only two people were left inside to work on the now dwindling number of work that is left for them to do. Only one machine was working and the noise it made just made me flinch.

I looked at my dad and felt a twinge in my heart. If what happened to this place could make me feel this bad, I can’t imagine how horrible my dad could be feeling every time he steps foot in that place. That is after all the home he knew, the place he grew up. The place he made all of his memories.

It is right that changes are inevitable, but when the change is as bad as this one, the only thought left on our minds is the hope that it could’ve stayed the same. So that we can hold on to the happy memories forever.