Alma

To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me.

And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure. To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I'm grateful to them.

A class reunion was organized to raise funds for our alma mater.

Tom's alma mater is MIT.

Harvard is Tom's alma mater.

Janis and Alma say that they had to speak Upper Sorbian.

Tom works in the registrar's office of his alma mater.

A grey day it is on the 4th of November of 2021. At the pizzeria, I could not sit eating my pizza at my regular table just outside the window, as a crowd of fresh brown teenagers were eating pizza there. So, I sat inside by the window. I could see the hairy arms of one brown teenager at the table outside. I went then to the cafe to have my usual iced green tea. I saw a longtime Filipino friend named Alma, who worked before at a corner convenience store, but now is in health care.

I looked back at my alma mater.

A hot, sunny, blue-sky day is today, the 16th of July of 2025, here on Lulu Island. As usual, I walk several times to Tim Hortons café for drinks and snacks. Today was my 70th time this year to the "Clam Temple," the Roman Catholic church at St. Albans Road. There were Polish workers doing something with the big wooden doors. I love Science, though I'm a spiritual Syncretist. At the Bamboo Grove, rose leaves littered the compost, full of fragrant rotting apples. Yesterday, the 15th, at the café, after a long time, I saw my Filipina friend Alma, an ex-worker at 7-Eleven, with her already teenage son. Then, also at the café, I saw the familiar father and daughter, who are Tahitians from New Zealand. The girl wore a pale yellow-orange hibiscus flower on her right ear. Then, I saw the familiar big Japanese-looking man mending his beige shorts at the café: "Chabacano!" he whispered. I've been eating lots of tofu lately at home.