Tuesday, October 31, 2006 Ariola: Remembering the dead By Jose Paolo Ariola I Still Walk the Line
WHEN former RTC Judge Tecson (not his real name) passed away a few years back, his was a lonely death.
From the lofty perch of his former position, he died alone in a decrepit one-room shack with only his pet dogs as companions up to the very end. Only a few court employees visited his wake. Only a handful showed up at his funeral.
It seemed that after his dismissal from the judicial service, he was shunned by his former colleagues. His grave would have been marked by only a strip of plywood with his name haphazardly printed thereon had it not been for the effort of Judge Fernando R. Elumba of RTC Br. 42 to raise some funds from his fellow judges enough to buy a decent gravestone befitting, at least, a former judge.
I should know. It was I and my fellow court employee, Reymundo Magno who brought that marble slab at his final resting place at Rolling Hills. We even said a short prayer at the gravesite as we laid that gravestone where the departed judge laid. That was five years ago.
I really don’t know personally Judge Tecson way back then. Neither did he know me when he was still in the service. We may have crossed paths on a few occasions at the old Capitol Building where the courts were used to be housed. I don’t remember us having been formally introduced to each other. I just knew him because he was a judge.
As for myself, I’m not sure if he returned the compliment. We shared practically no affinity to each other apart from being fellow court employees at one time. But it did not really matter to me. Last month, however, my kumare and fellow court employee Leonita Guzman mentioned to us at the office that she happened to pass by Judge Tecson’s grave after visiting her father’s grave at Rolling Hills and that she noticed that the grass had grown taller at thereat.
Almost automatically, I said that I’d be visiting my own departed mother that coming weekend and that I will take care of cutting the grass at his grave. And so I did. When I got there the following Saturday, my kumare was right –- the grass had definitely grown taller. In fact, some of the cut and dried grasses from nearby graves where dumped on the good judge’s grave.
And so, I was a grave caretaker for one fleeting moment on that Saturday morning as I cut grass on the former judge’s grave. It still puzzles me why I did that for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Today, I’ll be going back there again. And I’ll be bringing along with me a bigger grass cutter this time. I still don’t know why I’m doing this. Oh and by the way, guess I’ll bring a candle and a match for good measure.
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Tomorrow will be Todos los Santos. Perhaps in our hierarchy of holidays, All Saints’ Day comes in third behind Christmas and Holy Week, in that order. As early as last Sunday, the Bacolod City Plaza was again bedecked with kiosks selling flowers. All roads will lead to our cemeteries. Of course, we will have our usual staple of “valenciana” and “suman”. And then there’d be scary ghost stories and gory tales.
Why we’ve even embraced the western Halloween culture. Last weekend for instance, I overheard some teen aged girls engrossed in a conversation as they rummaged through some ghoulish mask and costumes at a popular department store.
Their conversation went this way. Said one girl to her friend….”maano ka sa Halloween?” (what’ll you be doing on Halloween?). Answered her friend….”ma-trick or treating kami” (we’ll go trick or treating). Which brings me to ask, do we do that here in the Philippines? Oh, brother! As for me, guess I’ll watch my old reruns of classic vampire and horror movies at home just to get in the mood of the season.
We all need a little scare every now and then. It’s good for the heart.
Oh well, have a solemn All Saints’ and Souls’ Days.
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