Today, I visited an uncle, an old soldier married to a younger sister of my mother, a public school teacher. He is in early 90s but is slowly fading away in his sick bed at Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, the same hospital where the Philippines former leader Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been under arrest. My boyhood summer vacations were spent in Fernando Air Base in Batangas with my cousins who were my age. I seldom see him because he was assigned in some far away airbases but I had fond memories of a strong, agile but soft spoken sergeant, a doting father. He was never strict and I saw how deeply wounded his heart was when a son was knifed to death by a soldier in 1988. In his retirement, theres only one thing that makes him excited and alive - playing mah-jong and I would find some time to join him in one of his simple joys if life. In his sick, he remained sharp, asking his son never to forget placing bets on his lucky Jueteng numbers. Now on the third month at the hospital, I can see his agony and misery. Food and meds are fed through an IV and he has difficulty speaking. On his 91st birthday on Saturday, I joined some of his children and grandkids in wishing to get well. Hang on tight Uncle Rafael Neri Sr.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 11:34:04 +0000
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