Monday, May 31, 2004
last saturday,
my college friends and i drove 3 and a half hours to get to batangas city, to attend the wake of a classmate's dad. anyway, i sincerely regretted not bringing my family's set of radios that are perfect for those long drives with at least two cars, and a lot of people who need something to pass the time with.
my friend's dad died rather untimely- a head-on collision with a wrong-way driver, and the lives of he and his friend at the wheel were snuffed out. as is with rural accidents in the middle of the night, details were still sketchy as of the time we visited, with wildly conflicting reports as to the whereabouts of the offending driver (from his being dead, to being detained, to having had escaped... and it has already been assumed he was drunk, being on the wrong side of the road.)
as such, it was a very difficult thing to swallow for those left behind, especially for my friend's mother and his six sisters. you could tell that the younger ones, especially, were trying very hard to hold back their tears, but their emotions eventually won out. it does hurt, watching someone trying to be strong.
it was another addition to the sensory prints i remember of that day: chinese paper scrolls of monetary pledges, the searing heat from the afternoon sun, and lighting candles in a building made 5 centuries ago with the purpose of glorifying a god, but also once used as bastion for and against people who shared this god yet spilled each other's blood.
as we stepped out of the bereavement hall, a hubbub was gathering outside the church; turns out that there was a wedding to begin. we could see the bride, with her nervous, yet excited smile. we saw the groom, whose beaming grin gave him away. we saw family, friends, some who looked wistful, most who looked hopeful, and all who looked anticipative.
banter passed around our group (of sixteen!), some aimed at me and my partner. when we looked at each other, we smiled, and knew at once we were thinking the same. but it wasn't about ourselves.
a wake and a wedding, meters from each other. families gathered. tears. hope. an end, and a beginning.
rites of passage, in the house of one God.
my college friends and i drove 3 and a half hours to get to batangas city, to attend the wake of a classmate's dad. anyway, i sincerely regretted not bringing my family's set of radios that are perfect for those long drives with at least two cars, and a lot of people who need something to pass the time with.
my friend's dad died rather untimely- a head-on collision with a wrong-way driver, and the lives of he and his friend at the wheel were snuffed out. as is with rural accidents in the middle of the night, details were still sketchy as of the time we visited, with wildly conflicting reports as to the whereabouts of the offending driver (from his being dead, to being detained, to having had escaped... and it has already been assumed he was drunk, being on the wrong side of the road.)
as such, it was a very difficult thing to swallow for those left behind, especially for my friend's mother and his six sisters. you could tell that the younger ones, especially, were trying very hard to hold back their tears, but their emotions eventually won out. it does hurt, watching someone trying to be strong.
it was another addition to the sensory prints i remember of that day: chinese paper scrolls of monetary pledges, the searing heat from the afternoon sun, and lighting candles in a building made 5 centuries ago with the purpose of glorifying a god, but also once used as bastion for and against people who shared this god yet spilled each other's blood.
as we stepped out of the bereavement hall, a hubbub was gathering outside the church; turns out that there was a wedding to begin. we could see the bride, with her nervous, yet excited smile. we saw the groom, whose beaming grin gave him away. we saw family, friends, some who looked wistful, most who looked hopeful, and all who looked anticipative.
banter passed around our group (of sixteen!), some aimed at me and my partner. when we looked at each other, we smiled, and knew at once we were thinking the same. but it wasn't about ourselves.
a wake and a wedding, meters from each other. families gathered. tears. hope. an end, and a beginning.
rites of passage, in the house of one God.
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