Busto: Cruel intentions

Saturday, September 11, 2010

ONE would think that antagonists and villains can only be seen in movies and telenovelas but sometimes they are actually real life characters. Just a few weeks ago, the entire nation saw this cop in a video torturing a lawbreaker to admit a criminal offense. Whether the suspect actually committed the crime, or was tortured to admission, only God knows.

I do not condone crimes being committed, like the lawbreaker in the video, but getting an admission to the crime in a manner so inhumane is unacceptable not only to me but to a lot of people I know. We are governed by laws and rules, and slow as our justice system may be, there is not much we can do. We cannot play gods and just put the law into our hands. Then end simply does not justify the means.

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But sometimes though, I ask myself, what push these people to be so cruel toward other people-the cop in the video to the offender and the offender to his victims. Villains, I realized, are not only the ones we see on television. They are actually also in our midst and sometimes we just have to be observant to catch these people with cruel intentions.

For almost three months now, my mother has been under the care of caregivers since suffering from a stroke. Since it was a major one that required a cranium surgery, my mother is in bed most of the time. I know I am in denial that is why I would not say that our mother is bed ridden because she still gets to sit-up (of course with the help of her caregivers) following her regular physical therapy sessions.

Even if the cost of getting caregivers is financially trying, I and my siblings do the best we can to manage. As part of the 70% (in my approximation that is) majority in our country, we are all just like any typical wage earner who earn our keep working in our respective workplaces as the five of us are all based outside Davao City, we cope the best way we can.

Despite this, however, my younger brother took care of our mother for more than a month after she was discharged from the hospital in June. My brother is married but does not have any children and we are fortunate that his wife, our sister-in-law, is overflowing with patience and understanding.

Although I have two other siblings who are unmarried, among the five of us, this brother of mine is the most flexible. So for over a little one month, my brother was able to see how our mother was cared for. He saw the routine as well as the behavior of both caregivers.

In those instances, the other caregiver stood out. At the cost that we are paying her, she is not supposed to get any free meal anymore. In fact she earns more than what my brother does as a skilled/technical employee, and she is not even a registered nurse. The reason why we got her in the first place was because she was referred by one of our mother's doctor. And not only that, she has over 15 years of experience handling critical cases.

But the hospitable Filipinos that we are, she was regularly included in the meals. As I, along with my siblings, pitch in to make both ends meet, we could allocate only simple fare like the usual fish, meat, and vegetable meals.

Every time the house help cooks fish and vegetables, this insensitive caregiver would say "kaluod ana uy" when even my brother eats the same food. My brother overheard this but let it pass. But as days wore on, she slowly showed her true colors, and we realized that she is not the "caring" caregiver we thought she was. She became a burden, with medical supplies as well as other supplies lasting only a day or two when it should have lasted more than a week, and with her becoming a part of my mother's household she had also became quite controlling and prying.

There are other incidents actually, not enough space to fill. To make the long story short, this caregiver who became our real-life villain saw her relief coming. Mean as she has become in our eyes, we wanted to relieve her in the nicest possible way so that there would be no hurt feelings.

Only to find out that she told her fellow caregiver that they should not teach their replacements on how to do their jobs and just let my mother's behind rot with bed sores. What hurt us the most was that she said this within our mother's hearing distance. How very insensitive, and uncaring.
But I am glad my brother thinks way, way ahead of this vicious caregiver. As a result, she was sacked and is jobless now. We retained the other caregiver as she knows her bounds and she works with passion, not just for the money.

Now, our mother makes more movements, and reacts more to stimulus. We wonder if this is her way of telling us that we did right in getting rid of this villain in our lives. If this is so, then I guess this is the best birthday gift we can ever give our mother as she is celebrating her birthday today.