After some time, the vacation was already done and it's time already for Lorie's family to return home near the volcano. The children are growing up, witnessing the poorest life of all, no available fresh water nearby, lacking proper rice meal, clothes, medicines, infertile -barren land, and a house very far from other towns as well as far from neighbors and marketplace.
Anne at that time was the youngest of all, she was a sickly child and always ate a little, a picky one in food. Anne won't eat a corn meal, all she wants is a rice meal. She was always sick, so the family was always trying to find rice for her.
Then one day, Lorie's brother came. He witnessed their pitiful life. So he convinced them to go back to Lorie's hometown where life was much better compared there. There on their father's side, the drinking and bath water is not so far away, the ground well was only a few meters away from their house and also her father had few rice fields and farm animals to help them plow the fields.
And also the soil was much fertile compared there near the volcano where it also kept on erupting from time to time, where Lorie was always panicking when it happened.
Lorie's father had vast lands, where they could harvest sugarcane seasonally, rice, root crops and any kind of fruits. Her father was a busy man, he's hardly seen sitting but always on the go at work but he's so strict where he could utter cruel words at times to anyone and punished anyone whenever he could find a mistake in one's actions.
The family of Lorie, at last, decided to go back to her Father's side. There they started again a new life. They built even a small hut for them at first just to separate from their parents, to have their own privacy away from the watchful, scornful eyes.
There, their life started to improve a little. Though they cannot avoid having small discussions and at times quarrels against her father especially about her husband Constantine.
Their eldest son has started schooling already there.
However, since Constantine was still bedridden, he cannot stand anymore due to his swollen feet, Lorie took over his role as a breadwinner this time. She participated working in a sugarcane plantation of one of the planters there who had the capacity to give a good pay and in her free time, she was still working in the small farm given by her father. In her small farm, she planted different kinds of root crops, corn, bananas, vegetables, and trees.
And because of the good soil there, she was able to get a rice field and started to plant rice too, and was able to harvest it for their own consumption.
She's working hard both in sugar plantation and in her own small farm bearing the role of a breadwinner. She was leaving home as early as 5 o'clock in the morning before the sun rose and returned home at nightfall.
Though Constantine was always in bed and his wife was so busy at a sugar plantation, giving birth to a new child cannot be stopped. Though Lorie was pregnant, she continued working. She grew more motivated to work and work non-stopped due to the 5 children she needed to feed at that time and plus her bedridden husband. And luckily, the 2nd son was able to help her from time to time, thus the 2nd son was always absent in school.
She gave birth to another daughter, the 5th child.
One day, the family took a vacation to their father's hometown where they once lived, near the Volcano.
They brought the baby child (the 5th one) and Anne, 5-year-old at that time. It took more than 3 hours when they arrived at their old home. They went there to attend the yearly feast in that small town. But due to a very long journey, a 5-year-old Anne was so tired she cannot stop herself to sleep. So she was left alone with her grandfather without knowing her parents had gone away already to the feast.
As she woke up, she found no familiar faces around anymore. Her mother wasn't there already, all of her companions were gone, so she cried and cried. She didn't know her grandfather well on her father's side since she's still a baby when she left there.
In her early age, she had remembered everything, she had an active memory, she never forgets all of the highlighted events of her life even when she's still a baby where her mother and father would always carry her through their arms. She remembered the day she got sick in her year one age, where they went to a health center, she still pictured out her first doll (an old rubber one), the bamboo floor where she's lying always with the high stock of corn beside her as their storage corner.
Anne has a photographic memory since she's a toddler. Her grandfather convinced her that they will just go home in a few hours but she wanted to go home. She had remembered their old home and the direction going there but she never knew that no one's home already but a rotten bare old house. She thought her family was there in their old house. So, her grandpa took his white cow, and carried Anne. He put her on the back of the white cow and they rode together going to their old house just to console her.
Her grandfather wondered how active her memory was, she's just a baby when they left that place but still, she knew it. She just watched the deserted house they had once lived in. She'd figured out that her grandpa was right, no one was there, so she believed that her grandpa was right all along, thus, she couldn't resist or complain anymore, but she had to follow him this time to return to where they came from and just wait for her parents there.
Few hours passed already, it was near nightfall, her parents and baby sister had just arrived. Her grandfather gave them a little lecture, a little harsh word why they left little Anne. He emphasized to them how active her memory was and told them everything. They realized she got that memory ever since she was a little child.
Then they just went home after that feast day, to their present hometown.
As time goes by, the eldest son graduated in elementary school already. He enrolled in high school but the school was so far, it took many kilometers away from home, near the marketplace. It took more than 2 hrs of walking along the long sugarcane plantation of a famous rich man and politician there and crossing the overflowing river before, then walking through a long sugarcane plantation again before arriving at the proper town, near the secondary school and market.
There's no available transportation going there, from their home to the school, no ordinary vehicle could go there except a few large trucks only when harvesting sugarcane, due to inaccessible roads - the rocky, muddy, difficult road.
The eldest son successfully graduated high school and then after that, he was sent to the other town to proceed to college. He went there to continue his study through the help of his distant relative, a priest, Constantine's relative - his uncle.
The priest was known to help his poor relatives like them who're willing to do anything just to finish schooling. Constantine asked his help for his eldest son. Luckily, the priest never turns his back every time to those who asked especially to his needy poor relatives. He's always helping them. He always did his best to find more money to sustain all the poor children he's sending to school and giving support like gifts, money, and goods to his relatives every Christmas season or whenever his relatives wanted even a surprise visit out of season. The priest never complains but he just gave and gave, he was a generous one.
The priest supported many children, and he's popular among all the priests also. He was an active leader in their community, he could speak fluently, eloquently to the vast crowd whether impromptu or not. He's so fearless, despite the many threats he's always receiving. He always did the right thing whenever he found something wrong in everything, even in the government or different states.
Every Christmas, Constantine, and Lornie always visited their eldest son there in the convent and the priest would always send gifts to each one of them and gave them food- a banquet for them during that season, that's how kind he was to his relatives.
But in turn, the children had to help him in the convent, all the household chores like cleaning, washing and preparing everything especially related to the church events. As one of the altar boys also, they're assisting the priest anywhere when requested by anyone to hold mass. And the eldest son was doing the priest errands too, all kinds of stuff even personal things.
Meanwhile, in the farm, the 2nd eldest, the 3rd and Anne were already in elementary grade already. But the 2nd was absent from time to time because their mother Lorie was always asking him to help her to work in the sugarcane field.
Due to absences, the 2nd seemed not motivated anymore to continue schooling and whenever he's in school, he was always involved in a fight with his classmates. Every time the school bell ends, he and his classmates were chasing each other, throwing stones, at times punching one another. Until he never returned to school anymore.
He totally devotes his time in the field helping his mother in work to make a living since their father was still in bed all the time, he could barely walk. Constantine, though cannot walk well, strived to help in doing the household chores. He was in charge of cooking, cleaning the house and other household chores like babysitting. That time, the baby is the 5th child.
The daughter who's helping him always in doing all the household chores was Anne, since all of them helped their mother always in the field.
Since Anne was a sickly one, her mother didn't allow her to do other work but only in charge of all the household chores while the other siblings are helping in the field.
Luckily Anne, though she was sickly, she's the brightest among the siblings. She enrolled herself in grade one at the nearest public school on the farm, she just went alone with strangers. She walked through the rice field together with the other children and their mothers. She's a quiet child at that time, maybe she did understand that her mother was so busy in the field to raise them and her father can hardly walk or work so she just went on her own alone during that enrollment time at first grade.
In the farm, her classmates in grade one were older than her, like 5-8 yrs older. But she managed to get 2nd place honor in the 1st grade. She was a bit loner, never talked to anyone unless asked or others would approach her. Others would praise her and would call her a doll, due to her small features, a little inches height, fair skin, shiny black thick hair, small nose, long eyelashes, and big eyes. Her eyelashes and big eyes are the best features she had, according to other people, so they always called her a "DOLL", a walking doll down the rice field.
Her teachers were so fond of her, they sometimes carried her on their lap even in class and would always call her " the walking doll". Though she's so small, no one ever bullies her because she's always leading in the class. She's not active outside but not in school. In school, she's always raising her hands to answer all the teachers' questions. And she's actively participating in every school's activities. Though she had no money every day, but she never failed to go to school, she would cry whenever she's absent. She just packed her lunch going to school with or without viand. She brought some salt with her to replace the missing thing in lunch, and a boiled banana or corn was her snack.
During recognition day, she came on top as 1st honor in 2nd grade until the 6th primary grade. She had no books back at home so she's so excited every day to go to school just to read all the books on the school's shelves. Every free time, break time was her reading time. She rarely joined other children to play. She just wanted to stay in one place, to keep silent and just read everything. She enjoyed walking through the rice field and through the muddy road upon going home. She had a habit of looking below the ground always while walking to find something, and luckily she sometimes will find a pocketbook, some other time magazines, newspapers or little coins. She's so happy, whatever she finds on the road, she'll keep it always and bring all those at home, as what they say "finders keepers"!
She graduated elementary grade with the highest honor among all, she received many awards including the MOST OUTSTANDING student of the year. She also participated in any Declamation contest through the help of her kind teachers even though she had no money to support but her teacher provided all those.
She was a prayerful one. She kept on praying every night, unlike her other siblings. She loved to read books, all stuff as long as with wholesome topics in it and everything that she found along the road like newspapers. She loved to study anytime though she's babysitting in the cradle or else above the tree where at times people that were passing by would wonder where the voice came from, she's above the tree reading aloud all that she read. She loved to read aloud that seemed reciting everything, memorizing her lessons, poems, and declamation anywhere, anytime.
But whenever she's babysitting and if the baby gets sick or cries, she cannot help but cry too.
She's so sensitive, emotional or a bit sentimental.
She babysat all her younger siblings, her younger sister and the following 3 younger brothers, respectively. The most difficult one to babysit is Marvin. Marvin never stays still, he would go round and round, would climb anywhere and would swing his body all the time like a monkey.
So, Anne grew as a thin girl with a long face and big eyes, always coughing and being sick longer like a month unlike her other siblings but they cannot afford to bring her to the doctor. She cannot sleep at times due to a cough and would ask help always to her father during the night to ease her difficulty. Her father would massage her back, then to prevent gas pain or bloating or trapping gas into the body as they said and practiced since their ancient ancestors, he'd put kerosene oil from their used lamp unto her back and all the parts that have been massaged. It must be supposedly an ointment or any good oil to apply upon massaging our body however due to poverty and unavailability of resources, the only alternative, and immediate solution is the used kerosene oil of the lamp. There's no available electricity there the whole time so they were only using a kerosene lamp.
The massage of her father helped her to ease the coughing and vomiting thus she could return to her sleep calmly afterwards. That's her routine every night before going to sleep and it took always a month before she could feel better. It took always a long month before she could have a cough-less night and to have a good night's sleep.
But one day, the friend of her mother's father visited. He'd seen the pitiful condition of little Anne. So he decided the next day to bring medicines for her and he made it from time to time.
He brought to her medicines always, he purposely went to visit just to continue Anne's medicines. He seemed a guardian angel to her until she recovered well and her cough vanished away. God was so merciful, " sometimes miracles are just good people with kind hearts, that God has sent to you" as they say.
Sometimes, a group of military men came to their place and would give Anne some medicines upon seeing her thin body and sickly condition.