Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Dacawi: Marqvinz's fight is over
By Ramon Dacawi
Benchwarmer
REMEMBER Marqvinz Mamaril, the boy too young to write his name?
The three-year-old toddler won't be able to enter any pre-school on this mortal plane. He'll now have angels to teach him to read and write.
Marqvinz moved on to the big classroom in the sky last Sunday morning. It was a week after the local papers carried an account of his protracted and brave battle against acute myelogeous leukemia.
"Marq is gone, last Monday at 9:48 a.m.," his father Michael said in a text message.
The text came late, Michael explained, as the family had to address the basics. Such as signing a promissory note on the hospital bills and the peculiar task of having to look for a casket that fits the boy's frail body.
"We waited at the memorial chapel until last night, when a white one, about a meter long, arrived," he said at the wake. "My in-laws went to all the parlors from Rosario (La Union) to San Carlos City (in Pangasinan)."
The remains of his youngest of three boys with wife Edna lies in state at the maternal home at 36 Evangelista St., Aurora Hill. Cremation is set Thursday morning at Beyond the Sunset, at the west end of the city.
Marvinz's body bore the scars of his over-a-year fight against a fast-developing affliction. It's supposedly rare among children. It's supposed to be for the elderly, perhaps because they have lived their lives and could take the pain.
Michael and Edna took some photos of the toddler's courage -- smiling on top of his bed beside his teddy bears, his hair gone from those chemotherapy sessions he didn't understand.
Marqvinz's hair had returned. His father understands it had something to do with skipping the chemo when the boy couldn't take the procedure or when finances couldn't allow. His mother, as nurse, understands what most what the toddler underwent. Yet, like any parent, the couple had all the reason to ask why.
They will be singing at the wake, musicians who belted out folk and country two days before his birthday last October 8 at the University of Baguio (UB) gym.
They will be praying, those people who reached out to Marqvinz, especially those who remain anonymous. Wherever and whoever you are, the Mamarils will remember. -- mail:rdacawi@yahoo.com for comments.
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pangasinan. (November 8, 2006 issue)
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