A Visit from Death

Today marks the ninth, the last day of novena.

I mentioned in my previous blog that death recently visited our family. My uncle died of a heart attack and it was such a painful situation to be in. It’s hard to believe my uncle left without saying good bye. It pained me to see my relatives feel the loss. Our Tito Jun was just 54, too young to leave this earth. There’s so much he ought to do. We were very close, or so we thought. Come to think of it, he never really opened up to us about his problems. When he was with us, he was happy and didn’t talk much about his personal life. All we knew was that he had a heart problem and that he wasn’t doing well with his business that he worked on for 23 years. The business he loved so much and didn’t want to give up. The same business that was supposed to give him a new lease on life, but instead was the nail in his coffin. Figuratively and literally.

We will surely miss our Tito Jun. Our family gatherings and outings won’t be as fun. We enjoyed videoke-singing with him and I don’t think our videoke and inuman sessions will ever be the same. He always made us laugh with his sarcastic and funny remarks. I guess it wasn’t enough. We needed more than just laughing. Serious talking could have helped us get to know him and his life. There was so much we needed to learn about him. We regret not knowing. He was so secretive. If only he opened up to us. We could have shared his troubles and helped him deal with all of it. But that didn’t happen, simply because death didn’t allow us to. He stole him just like that.

I truly despise death. Who doesn't? It's cruel, cold, unkind and haunting. It steals our loved ones without warning. It brings so much pain, and takes away your happy glands, leaving you empty and frightened. It scares the hell out of you, making you paranoid as to when and how you would die, and where you would go after. It causes you sleepless nights, waking you up to the reality that nobody lives forever. Everybody leaves.

I could go on with the negativity about death, but as much as I refuse to admit it, I believe God gave us death so we learn from it. We learn that everyday is a gift we should be thankful for. We realize that our loved ones should not be taken for granted because once they are gone, we can never bring them back. We also look back at our own lives. What have we done so far? Have we lived to the fullest? Have we made a difference to other people’s lives? Have we told the people we care about how much we love them? Death also brings people together. We see our relatives and friends we haven’t seen in a long time. We grieve together. We bond and realize we need each other. While death doesn't bring back our loved ones, we learn that there is hope that we can rise from the poignant state, stronger. We recover and learn to move on.


To have a loved one die is one of the hardest trials we can ever encounter, but I truly believe God has His reasons. We will never forget our Tito Jun. He is in a better place right now. The reality is we all go there, right? He just went ahead of us.