An afternoon at the SSS (conclusion)

ONE fine afternoon this week, I’m back at the Baguio office of the Social Security System. I’d still like my ID card issued. This time around, I have my passport, which expired late last year, but which the boss of the Baguio office said last week would do to identify my face. I remind second boss of what she and I were advised by the boss of the Baguio office.

Also, the passport has the ñ, affirming the correct way to spell my family name. Besides, my original application for an SSS number already showed the ñ.

Now to the Grace after the Linda. Second boss asks me about that second name, which is in all of my current IDs. I say to her that payments made after 1990 have the Grace and that I was once informed by SSS itself that payments for Linda were already merged with those made for Linda Grace.

She says no, payments are credited to Linda, not Linda Grace. I am about to ask her to retrieve the original files of said payments, as I am as sure of the ñ as I am of the payments made by Linda Grace. But a voice in my head says that I might just one day need an ID that’s just about Linda.

So off I go to the corner that takes the pictures. When done, I am informed that I will get my ID in the mail in two or three months. Because – in my mother’s words, “Marami kang hininhingi kay God” – I am praying for so much, I tell myself I’ll deal with Grace later.

Whenever I travel out of the country, I walk around with an affidavit that says Linda and Linda Grace Tan Cariño are both me. In legalese, of course. For now, that affidavit will have to do. Also this week, an old, dear friend and cousin turned the big 60, too. Happy birthday Pudl!