a series of unfortunate events

[As posted last October 21, 2010 on Tumblr]


I have been on and off the blogging world for weeks now actually for months already. A lot of things have happened and they’re sort of why i’m not blogging during those days, just blog-hopping and reading and sometimes, leaving comments…

Last week of August, Mia was hospitalized and was diagnosed of pneumonia which occurred along with her asthma :( We were at Cardinal Santos Medical Center for four full days. To think it started with just cough and colds, we didn’t think it would become something worse like that the next day with fever of 38 to 38.8. In the wee hours of the morning actually around one in the morning of August 25, we packed Mia’s and our things (just in case she’ll be admitted for confinement) and headed to the hospital. Because the first two hospitals that we went to were full, at around 2:30 - 4am, we ended up at Cardinal Santos Hospital. After a few interviews with the doctors, tests and waiting for results, we were admitted. At 5am, we were at our room already. The room for Mia’s medicard plan is semi-private but because all the other rooms were occupied, we were given the private room. I was carrying Mia almost the whole time, and most of the time we were at the couch not the hospital bed because Mia doesn’t want to be put down :( and she just wants to be with her mommy…

There were also good things that lightened my burden during that ordeal: medicard covered almost all of our hospital bills except for the excess fees (incremental costs, etc.) for the room rate and the doctor’s professional fee since we opted not to transfer into another room anymore after two days for our convenience since we have more than 2 visitors each day; we had more than enough hands who helped us, my mom, my dad, my sisters Jen and Jona, my tita Lucy and tita Lily.

First Monday of September, while i was checking on the stats of my site, i landed on something that offended me (i could not go into details yet for this one as this is still a pending issue and awaiting resolution—will try to blog about this once i have the results—hopefully better results for me), which also made me uneasy and vulnerable for about two to three weeks… but that didn’t stop me from doing what i am usually doing. It also made me re-assess / re-evaluate myself. If there are things that I learned from this, that would be: you can not trust even the one you thought you could trust and that you really really can not please everybody—whether the things you do are good or bad, still someone would say something not good towards you. Just ignore if you think you’e on the right side.

Second week of September, I found out from my mom and my aunt that my grandmother had on and off fever for several days. A week after, they told us that she’s not eating anything anymore and could not even turn from her lying position in bed. She could not drink even a drop of water as she chokes everytime they had her try. My mom and dad together with my sisters already went home to help my aunts and uncles and everyone else back home taking care of our grandmother. I wasnt able to come with them because I already used up my leave credits before and during Mia’s hospitalization. That was one of the sad part :(

Last September 21, I am on graveyard / night shift by the way, I received a text from my sister that our grandmother already joined our Lord in heaven. I still went to work the night after I received that then filed for a three days leave without pay. We went home for the wake and the burial then spent the rest of the week with our relatives. We are thankful that our grandmother did not suffer and just peacefully slept.

Currently, can say that i was made stronger by each of above mentioned events. I also learned that with every ordeal, it is your family and true friends that chooses to stay close and help lighten up things for us. Thank you for all the help and the prayers. Thank you Lord!

prayers for my inang

[As posted last September 21, 2010 on Tumblr]

i believe i said to myself that i am ready even from the time that i heard that she’s not fine. that i am just waiting for a text or a call. but when i finally received a text saying that now is the time at around 2:30 in the morning, tears started falling from my eyes. i felt sad. i cried.

inang, we will miss you. i know you will now be one with God in heaven. you’ll be in His paradise. you’ll be together again with tata. thank you for all the things that you’ve taught us. specially to us, your grand children. i know you loved us all so much although during the last few years while you’re little by little losing your memories and hearing and eye sight, you obviously had favoritism but we understood that that was because you’re getting old.

few of my memories of inang Eling:

- she would let me count the duck eggs to be sold to the balut maker.

- she would carry a basket full of tomatoes (already in separate plastic bags containing a kilo each) with me in tow to sell them to our neighbors

- we were at their house, inang, tata, jeff, jenny, jona and me—we shared a dinner of rice, sardines in can (w/tomato sauce) and pineapple slices (in can with 4 slices in it) as our dessert. she even made the pineapple slices into tidbits for us to have equal parts

- she was the first who taught us how to cook rice on wooden fire

- she would tell us “dalas” which meant faster when we’re going to their house specially when its starting to get dark already

- she cooks the best “pinugot”. a shrimp dish with kamias.

- she made us experience how to use a hand powered “stone” grain grinder whenever we would make kutchinta or dila-dila or ginataang bilo-bilo

- i could not remember one, i think she never raised her voice on us and never ever scolded any of us, her grandchildren.

When I was still a kid, I remember her as a tireless woman who’ll gets sick if she stops working even for a moment. that was my inang. goodbye inang. i love you!