A Story Unburied
5/2/2014
8:15
A Story Unburied
“Ma nanghihina na ako.” (Ma, I’m getting weaker.) It was Osang’s last word as her mother retold their battle against cancer. As I listened to Tita Neneng’s story I couldn’t help but admire Osang’s strength and will to live even her last words was this. Still if you would think about it, contrasting to its words, is full of power; to admit that you’re not afraid of getting weak, of accepting that your body couldn’t go on.
“Ni kahit minsan sa ospital hindi siya umiyak sa harapan ko, ni nagreklamo ng sakit kahit puro tusok na mga daliri niya sa kamay pati na sa paa.” (Never did she cry in front of me when we were in hospital or that she complaint of the pain even though her fingers on both hands and feet were pierced with medicine.) Tita Neneng told us with happy heart. It was both overwhelming and sad to hear her stories about her daughter. I could imagine Osang in the hospital still smiling through a month of chemotherapy and still showing her mother that she wanted to live for them but as Tita Neneg said, we don’t have the full control of our lives. She knew that Osang’s time was up and that she was still grateful beyond the fate of her daughter, for she knows that Osang is now beside our dear Lord and that she is now peaceful at where she is.
If you would ask me, we were not really that close but Osang was our childhood friend, me and my sister, together with kids in our street. One thing I remember about her when we were young was her short hair and that some kids teased her about her color but never did I remember she had trouble with other kids for that. I know that she had always been a good person, I know. Because when I needed someone to save me on a rainy afternoon when I was in 4th year high school, God used her. I was walking to home when the rain started real hard. I wasn’t near yet to my home so I really panicked, praying for God to cover me up through the rain. I could see people looking at me with umbrella, some became temporarily blind, some were staring at me as if to say ‘that’s what you get for not bringing an umbrella’ which I just forgot that very day and some were just people who just stayed people but then Osang appeared out of nowhere and smiled at me and you guessed it right. She shared her lovely umbrella with me. It was still raining when we got to our street, and we would be walking first to her house I already said thank you to her and told her that I’ll just ran to mine but she insisted on taking me home saying, “sige, okay lang, malapit na naman e.” Small words but big act. I’ve know people, and by people, I mean people who could have said okay when I said I’d just ran to my house.
18 and young. She was younger than I, so I couldn’t help but feel lonesome for her and for her family. She could have 10 more years and be something she longed to be, or 20 more years and have a family with the one she loves, or 30 more years and be anywhere she wanted to be, or 40, 50, 60, 70, and live her life all that she wished but all she had was 18, but 18 years of fulfillment. She died in the service of God. She had served God with all her heart and time and life that 18 years was enough for God to say that He’s taking Osang now to save her from the judgement day as Tita Neneng joked around.
I admire her and her family for fighting for life and saying goodbye when it was time coz both wasn’t easy, but they did both with strong hearts. Osang’s death, I guess is not to be saddened of, but I believe that her death is an inspiration, as it touched mine. Her life is a story that people, a lot of people would want to talk around for a very long time for she had touched so many lives.
Life, is there’s one thing I’ve learned tonight after visiting Osang together with my sister, Jam, Owa and Timmy was that life doesn’t end with death, it continues with our stories of her that her life continues in heaven where everything lives happily forever. Life is nothing we could ever manipulate but life is giving your time and soul in to serving God and to loving your family and people around you, for making a story that can never be buried.
You will be forever remember, Osang, and your story will be immortal as you become one in heaven.