LIFE: Sickness

Yesterday, we went to Alabang to pay the taxes due for our house there. Everything went by so smoothly and we were home bound almost immediately. We then went to the mall to have lunch where I saw an old friend.

On the way home, we received a text message from a relative and told us that my cancer-stricken aunt was already in critical condition and we had to go and see her as the doctors had already given up on her. We immediately told my dad, he's the eldest by the way, and he took it quite lightly but the whole trip to the hospital he was talking about everything and anything. Perhaps, it was just his way to cope up with the stress and sadness knowing that your little sister whom you cared for and loved is but a few moments away from leaving you.

When we got there, I immediately saw my cousins crying outside the door of her room. I later found out that it was because the doctors told them to prepare for the worse. Everyone cried. My dad went in first and talked to her and stayed by her side. I just lingered outside since I didn't have the courage to see her. We just stayed outside as my uncle and my other relatives recounted her life and shared stories about her.

I mustered enough courage to go inside and when I saw her I teared up. She can no longer breath on her own and as they told me her heart has stopped pumping blood so she was hooked up to a slew of medical apparatus. All that remained of my aunt were skin and bones, a spectre of her former jovial and lively self.

My dad never left her side and just held her hand and talked to her in the loudest voice possible reassuring her that everything will be alright. I guess that's how he tried to cope up with the sadness and grief...

I prayed the rosary. I wished and hoped that she will be saved. We left knowing that everything remains uncertain and only time may determine the outcome of their family's ordeal.