"3 things I have seen this week :3 lives , 3 Tragedies"

"3 things I have seen this week :3 lives , 3 Tragedies"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

I find myself in a family outing that is cause for celebration but with an added layer of perceptible pain that emanates from those who suffered such tragedies that I hope does not befall anyone. It makes you question why these things happen and if such dire situations are surmountable. I have survived my own horrors and are still suffering from them.

1) Papa D.

He stood as the patriarch and glue for the family for years. Ever good , providing things and patient with others. Generous to a fault. Until in a span of a year disaster struck , it started with a death in the family , and then a fire that destroyed the house and all the belongings that he had worked so hard for decades to achieve. And in that instant that pushes a man to almost madness he suffered an even worse insult , a massive stroke that robbed him of at least a chance to gain back what he has lost. It pains me to write about this but as I saw him at that party , the shell of his former self. Quiet and smiling  , far from the noisy welcoming man that we once knew. 

2) Tito M.

It was his birthday and the family jokester was still in his element as life of the party but when all have gone we were able to see the pain that was not able to let go for the last 3 years. He had been living in a house that he had improved , he was enjoying riches and luxuries that were all taken away in the blink of an eye when they were asked to leave a house that they were not able to secure for himself.

He spent so much of his money invested in that house and to lose it at this point of his life forcing his family to adopt a lifestyle that they were not used to but had to because what they once had was gone.To make matters worse his eldest child , the closest to him was diagnosed to have CKD stage 5 that required her to undergo dialysis twice a month at the age of 26. 

I listened to him as he lamented this but life goes on and despite the pain still tries to smile.

3) J F

I have known JF since I was a small boy and he was a smaller boy. Now that we are both older I have come to know two tragedies that struck their family in one month.  At the beginning of the month they had mourned the loss of his eldest sibling , a sister that had succumbed to cancer of the liver.

As they are still recovering from this , another death occurred at the end of the month as his youngest sibling after an argument with his wife decided to tie a rope around his neck and jump from the 2nd storey building that they shared as a common dwelling. 2 deaths in one month. The other had yet to past the 40 days that pinoys are accustomed to and yet here is another wake. 

I write about these tragedies in hopes to make sense of it but in my limited understanding I find that I do not and I hope that these men find the fortitude to withstand the storms in their lives.