Sticking Together

“It could have been fatal had you waited another 8 hours to bring your brother in.”

This was the statement given by the attending physician as he went through the initial medical tests of my dear cousin, T.

For close to three weeks, T was confined in the ICU.  Oxygen and dextrose lines, heart and BP monitoring devices were attached to him.  He could hardly move and breathing was difficult.  His family kept a tight watch over him.   Without much ado, whatever differences they had with each other was quickly set aside just as quickly as the deadly bacteria took hold of my cousin. They shared one prayer—T be given the grace to get well again. During those uncertain days, love was the only force that gave the family the fortitude to take each day as it came.

When the Living is Easy

The sea was very close to where I grew up in Cebu.  So close was the pier to our house I could hear the deep and lonely blast of a ship’s horn late at night as it got ready to leave port.  If I imagined hard enough, I could hear the ship’s porter’s warning call, “pwera besita, pwera besita”.

With such close proximity, it was only natural for my parents to bring us to the popular public black sand beaches of Talisay (famous for pinasugbo- bananas dipped in dark and thick sugar glaze) or brown sand beaches of Liloan (famous for whirlpools and rosquillos- a round, scalloped edge sweet biscuit) in the summer. 






 In the 1970s, when barges made it possible to cross over, the white sand beaches of Mactan Island became our favorite summer playground.