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It’s about to be five years since my mom passed away.

We all miss her a lot. I loved chatting with her and hearing about her life. Thanks to the photography and keepsake skills she got from her dad, we have so many cool photos that we can pair with the stories.

Judging from the date she wrote on one of these photos, Linda was in the midst of studying for her college degree in Chemistry, which she later obtained with high honors. She excelled in school. Her mom said she thought she was one of those baby geniuses because she was already doing math at the age of four as she allocated apples. Her mom also said she had to knit extra wide neck widths on sweaters to fit her large toddler head that housed a big brain.

She went to college in a place far from home where, along with her studies, she learned two new languages on top of the two she already spoke fluently. Her parents and four sisters were spread out in different parts of the world. When she left home, she said her dad told her, “When you miss us, just look up at the Moon and know that we look at the same Moon.”

While she went to school, she worked part-time cleaning houses and later got a job as a bank teller. The bank was at the top of a steep hill. She would effortlessly walk up and down that hill on her daily commute while wearing platform heels. In retrospect, she said she didn’t how she did that but figured it was the gift of youthful feet making sacrifices for the good of the outfit. Haha!

My mom always looked so pretty. She wasn’t conceited. She had an inoffensive confidence that encouraged others to be themselves.

I’m someone who has a hard time making moves and I remember just watching her in awe as she made everyday decisions, whether it was putting on a pair of clip-on earrings, trying a new shade of lipstick, picking a new song to sing on karaoke, getting out on the dance floor, riding a roller coaster, or dressing up for Halloween.

Her prowess in her decisiveness was also guided by the demands of time, or lack thereof. She was always busy. Despite her science degree, she worked a lot outside of the discipline and landed in an accounting career, which she enriched with classes. She started in a Customer Service role and eventually earned the position of Controller in the company she worked at for many years.

So much of her time was spent working, commuting, taking care of us and the older and younger generations, maintaining the structure of the entire household, keeping in touch with family and friends, and truly caring and inquiring about what was going on in our lives. She was and is an inspiration.

She lit us all up with her bright shine. We’re all lucky she was in our lives at all, to have had her as a parent is genuine fortune. I’m so thankful that there was time in adulthood where we could just kick it, eat good food, watch tv, and talk about the kids and life together.

As we experience grief on global and personal levels, I’m still learning how to tend to my grief in a way where the sorrow informs rather than festers. I think we all are.

I appreciate being able to see my mom in my sisters as they raise their children with the same warmth that she gave us, in my nieces and nephew who are awesome individuals that speak of their PoPo with such sweet spontaneity, in all of my aunties’ eyes as they smile, in the memories and stories our family and friends share with us, and, funnily enough, my left index finger. I used to hold it up next to hers because I felt they looked the same.

We love you and miss you, Mommy. Thank you for everything. May you enjoy well-deserved eternal peace.

Together we raised $60 for NorCal Resist through Happy Home Fundraiser! :O) I’m very appreciative to those who donated and shared the fundraiser posts. The need for mutual aid support continues and every bit helps. It also really helps me personally to see the collective desire to support the mutual aid organizations that support so many communities.

When I set out to do the fundraiser, I wanted to make sure it was something that I could deliver on. Making Animal Crossing: Happy Home designs was something that I could do in my spare time regardless if it was an odd hour.

After getting over an initial hesitation on whether or not this was something people would want in exchange for a donation, I made a plan to get the word out, which I think could use some improvements. Some thoughts about the process:

Reach and Exposure

I decided to try using Instagram to promote this fundraiser. After I made my first post, I realized that I completely forgot to use hashtags which I think would have been helpful to include. I also think it might help to time the fundraiser with something like Giving Tuesday or another coordinated time to promote fundraisers.

Communication

In my future attempts, I need to be much more succinct. I put lots of text and rules into the initial post which can be overwhelming and create a barrier. So I’ll work on getting a better balance with that.

Sharing the Designs

While I can use social media, I wanted to share the designs on my website.

(This is big tangent regarding GIFs and doesn’t have to do with the fundraiser process. Please feel free to skip if it’s not of interest!)

At first, I wanted to share a 360 degree view of each of the rooms in the design via a video clip. I discovered that WordPress transitioned to needing a subscription to post an uploaded video. In trying to avoid using YouTube to embed video, I looked into making a GIF (which I haven’t done until now, haha!)

It’s a weird goal, but I wanted to make the GIF without the use of a third party app. That led me to see that I can make GIFs via Shortcuts which comes with iOS. This Reddit post informed that I can make a GIF that outputs the original ratio of the video.

That’s really cool, but then I remembered that most GIFs are huge in regard to file size, which isn’t great for a website. There are lots of third party softwares that compress GIF files, but the result is unfortunately low-quality and the file size remains pretty big. So I just decided to share as still images from multiple angles.

Overall, I think the important thing is to try, identify where improvements can be made, then try better the next time. Thank you for reading! :O)

I’m planning on doing a mutual aid fundraiser where I make Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise designs for people who donate at least $15 to a mutual aid fund that I’d like to support: Happy Home Fundraiser

I’m going to try posting about it on my Instagram and we’ll see how it goes.

If you’re interested in doing something like this, feel free to use the templates below to fundraise for a mutual aid fund that you’d like to support.

To be honest, I’m kind of nervous to try this because of general social anxieties, not knowing if there will be any response, worrying about making designs that people will enjoy, and doing my subpar attempt at website admin. But the need for mutual aid is always there, so I think the important thing is to just try what we can and hope it works and helps.

Thank you for reading! :O)

Post template:

Happy Home Fundraiser

Hello! :O) Would you like to donate $15 or more to ________ and then get a custom design by me in Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise?

For the first TEN people*** to comment on this public post with “HHF”, I’ll request proof of donation via DM and then later post the image(s) of their AC Happy Home designs on my website for everyone to enjoy.

***You’ll know you’re one of the first ten if I heart your comment and you receive a DM from me requesting a screenshot of your donation receipt. I’ll lock the comments if/when the post reaches the max response.

You can donate here: _________

For this fundraiser:

—At least $15 donation = a one-room design

—At least $25 donation = a two-room design

—At least $35 donation = a two-room + outdoor design

After I get the screenshot of your donation receipt, I’ll send you an optional questionnaire to help inspire your design.

Please allow me through the end of this weekend before seeing it posted on my website. I’ll post an update here when they’re up :O)

(________you can describe a bit about the mutual aid of your choice here________)

Thank you for reading :O)

Donation Receipt Request template:

Hello :O) Thank you very much for donating to ________! Please reply with a screenshot of your donation receipt.

Questionnaire template:

Please see the optional questionnaire below. If you’re going to participate in the questionnaire, please send your responses within 24 hours so I can incorporate them into your design. I’ll be designing these throughout the week during my spare time, so I hope to get the images of your design up on my site by the end of the weekend.

Note: All designs will be posted publicly on my website.

1-Are you comfortable with your Instagram username being publicly posted on my website?

(If you’re not comfortable or don’t answer this question, I’ll just post it without a name. Then I’ll inform you which one is yours via DM.)

2-Favorite animal or AC character if you have one?

(I’ll try my best to accommodate with the animals and furniture I currently have unlocked in the game.)

3-Favorite color?

4-Favorite hobby?

5-Favorite season?

6-Favorite food/cuisine?