MAÑAINA

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Here's what William Safford, Navy official on Guam in the early 1900s, said about the way we treated our parents in his day :

"On their part sons and daughters show the greatest respect and affection for their parents, recognizing their authority as long as they live.  It is not unusual for a man or woman of 40 or 50 years to ask permission of his parents before engaging in a business transaction, and the spectacle of old women, abandoned and forgotten by their children, acting as water carriers, etc., so common in Samoa and among our Indian tribes, is unknown in Guam.  Parents are tenderly cared for in their old age, treated with deference even when in their dotage, and depart this life accompanied by the prayers of all their family, all of whom leave their occupations and come from the most distant parts of the island to be with them during their last moments."

"Onra si tatå-mo yan si nanå-mo."  I mina' kuattro na Tinago' Yu'us.