Rough Groove

Death on a Sunday

For the past few days, I haven’t written something nor posted. I just can’t seem to put it down into ones and zeros but the more I delay, the heavier it gets.

Around 0130H, Monday, my mobile rang. I checked who called and it was my mother. She was sobbing. “Dong, si papa nimo. Namatay na” (”… your father died”). At first, tears flowed as I cried, a natural reaction but then it just stopped. I coudn’t believe what I was hearing. It was too shocking but at the other end of the line, it was my mother. I have never heard her cry this way before. I can’t sleep. I cried again. And for the rest of the day, I just felt so alone. I filed for a leave of absence.

My father died, probably of a heart attack in a hotel room in Mumbai, India, while waiting for the ship that he will be handling. He was alone when it happened and that thought, the possible struggle to hang on to dear life was just too much for me to imagine. In the end, he succumbed and expired. Earlier that day, he has been calling my mother to tell her that his heartbeat is getting lower. Calling her every now and then telling her his condition. He was given medications and it improved but later, it went down again. By around 1500H, my mother wondered why no calls came. She rang him but no one answered. This until late in the evening. Then that crucial time came and my mobile phone rang.

Initially, we were told that his body will be brough back to the country by Tuesday or Wednesday that’s why I stayed in Makati to await its arrival. But my mother sent me an SMS telling me that it will still take time due to documentation and other legal processes and it will be flown direct to Cebu that’s why by Wednesday, I was already on a Cebu Pacific flight for Cebu. From the airport to our house, I can’t just help but think of my father that when I arrived home, I just broke down and hugged my mother.

Earlier tonight, Friday, and my father arrived cold and frozen from a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong encased in some cheap coffin and crated just like any other cargo.

Later today, Saturday, and the body, already prepared from the funeral parlor will be brought to the house for the wake and burial will take place 11 June, 1400H.