We all have our share of horror stories that Milenyo brought about.

How the storm uprooted trees.

How roads with beautiful lined trees are now unpassable.

How seemingly sturdy structures like billboards came crashing down due to the strong wind.

How we all dealt with the lack of electricity and water for days! (thank God, we had a genset on standby. We were very neighborly. We hooked up our next door neighbor with our genset. On our last day, our other neighbor asked if they could hook up too because their meat was getting rotten already. Unfortunately, too much hook ups would cause an explosion (just like what happened to the genset when Zong, Trio and Pasto at the Fort all shared a genset) and so we offered that their food be placed inside our freezer. Imagine my surprise when a crab was staring at me when I opened the refrigerator.

My most memorable experience (wow, I sound like I'm answering a pageant question) during the storm was when, at the eye of the storm, my stepmom arrived home and noticed that all our plants were getting uprooted by the wind. So in her jeans and sweater, she started carrying pots and pots of plants into our garage! Of course, I couldn't just stand there so I called my other sister and we helped our mom. All the maids, my little brothers and my sister and I were soaked to the bone, running into the cold rain and carrying pots of plants! At one moment, I realized that my grandmother who is a horticulturist (is that what you call it? Someone who has a green thumb?) wouldn't even do what we just did!

But anyway, one story about Milenyo amazed me. And it involves my grandmother.

My grandmother lives in Rizal, by the lake. I mentioned before that we call this place, The Island. From the gate of the property, there's a one lane road, the length of which is about from one end of Bldg B of Megamall to another, that leads to a body of land surrounded by water. The fact that it is about 95% surrounded by water makes it seem like an island to us. Anyway, the Island is full of plants and trees. It's got 3 centuries old Acacia trees, coconut trees, palm trees, chico trees, papaya trees, manggo trees, duhat trees and all kinds of flowers. Often times, during the rainy season and when a huge storm arrives, the lake overflows and therefore kills all my grandmother's plants and flowers. But my grandmother, just picks up and replants her plants. My grandmother has experienced many storms that I guess, she's just use to it.

When Milenyo hit the country, my dad and uncles pleaded her to come down and stay with one of her sons so that she'll be safe. In that one hectare of land, she was all alone.. except perhaps, the guard and a staff or two who checks in on her. If you were her, you'd give in to your sons' pleadings, right? Wrong. Stubborn woman that she was, she didn't give in.

In the aftermath of the storm, my uncle tells me that the road from the gate to the main island was unpassable due to the trees that fell. One Acacia tree, which is so huge it would take about 4 people with outstretched arms to circle its trunk, was semi-uprooted, you'd think someone plucked it from the ground and placed it on top of the building structure beside it. As for my grandmother's plants, I think it's safe to say that they are all gone.

Ahhh, but the amazing part is... my grandmother's house is by the edge of the lake and it was completely untouched. My grandmother have paper mache-d angels hanging from her ceiling by a string and not one of them were blown away by the strong gusts of wind. Remember that her house is by the lake so the wind is stronger than what we've experienced here in the city.

I could imagine my grandmother sitting in her room, her eyes closed and hands clasped at her lap in prayer, as the storm brewed around her. A picture of calm and serenity amidst chaos and destruction. It's like a scene from an X-Men movie or something.

My grandmother has a very strong relationship with God (how strong? she once found a lump in her breast and she just prayed over it and it was gone!) so God must really love her. If not God, then it must be the elementals (dwendes and the kapre) living in the island who protected her home.