6-12 August 2007
This is a bad week for me. My father
died.
He was back from the hospital last
Tuesday. I am so glad about this but there were things that happened. After he
returned, last Wednesday and Thursday, he cannot talk. There was something that
he wanted to tell us but it cannot seem to come out of his mouth. I pity my
father and also myself. And then last Saturday was the day he died.
Early morning I woke up to the sound
of my mother saying, “Pa, abri ya boka
para pwede toma medicina. Late ya iyo na trabaho.” I fixed my bed. I went
to my father, I saw him and he was still okay. Afterwards, I made my project in
Social Studies, a drawing of the Magellan’s cross. Then suddenly my sister went
to my father. She said that there was something that father wanted to tell us
but it cannot go out of his mouth. We got a notebook and a pencil to give my
father to know his message to us. When we gave it to him, he was starting to
write but he cannot because he did not have the strength anymore. That time, my
mother was at the hospital, working. We called our aunt. We told her what had
happened.
My aunt arrived and helped us. We
made flash cards of the alphabet and paste in on a folder. The only thing that
my father needed to do was to point out the letters then we will arrange it to
know his message. The first letter he pointed out was the letter “C.” We
thought he meant ‘Cecil,’ my mother, and that he wanted to talk with her. Then,
we rushed to text my mother to go home because father wants to talk with her.
Then again, he was making another word. The letters he pointed out were ‘R’,
‘A’, and ‘T’. We thought at first it was RAT but not. What he really meant was
‘TRABAHO.’ The he pointed his bag and my aunt asked, “Kosa chene na bag? Baka chene gold.” We laughed and opened his bag. It has in it a
lotto ticket. The numbers there were the years each of us was born. (My aunt
bet it. We hoped it would win.) Then my father had a heart attack and I
suddenly cried. We prayed the rosary. In the middle of our prayer, my father’s
eyes suddenly looked up and we all panicked but continued to pray the rosary.
After praying, my father was okay so I went to our room and slept.
My cousin woke me up and said that
my father died… I cried. I went to my father’s side to check if it’s true, then
it is truly true… I cried and cried and cried…
My mother arrived with an ambulance.
On my mother’s way home, my father has already died. “Porque tu nuay espera kumigo? Porque?” My mother cried. And with
her tears were the clenching of my heart.
Until now, I can still recall the
days we’ve been together as a whole family. And I can also recall my graduation
day, when my father, hand in hand, marched with me.
