Monday, December 31, 2007 Christmas with the Big C By Ben Jason O. Tesiorna
CHRISTMAS, as many say, is for the children to enjoy. In this light, the AFP-PNP Press Corps in Davao City decided to sponsor a Christmas party for the children afflicted with the Big C, cancer, who are admitted at the Davao Medical Center.
The group's president, Peng Aliño, spearheaded the party with the help of James Infiesto's Bonjee Entertainment, the Kythe Foundation, and Manette Babao.
Gino the magician clown amazed the kids with his antics and magic. Then the Jollibee mascot arrived and he made the children even merrier. They posed and played with Jollibee.
As I observed from a distance, I could see their faces glowing and hear their laughter ring out. Almost all of the 25 children with cancer, aged 2 to 15, have lost their hair due to chemotherapy.
I saw one child whose hand has bandage and a tube protruding from the binding. I dared not ask the child's mother as to what the tube is for. Then I saw a girl, about three to four years old, with barely a hair and running along the party venue.
From an angle where I saw only one side of her body, I saw her wide eye full of happiness. I just looked at her as she was beaming with joy. And then she turned to her other side as she went back to her mother, I saw her other eye gone. All I could see in her face a hollow space in where her left eye should be. Again I could not dare to ask why.
My journalistic instinct nudged me to ask why, but my fatherly instinct said, "Let it be, let the children enjoy their Christmas without having to worry about their health just for this moment."
This is my first Christmas with children afflicted with cancer and I almost did not attend it as I have some "more important things to do" that day. But I'm glad I was there. I'm glad that the children shared their life with me even for just a few moments. I will truly cherish my experience with them for they made me realize that Christmas is not about cellphones or new gadgets or new shoes and new shirts and pants.
In them I saw that Christmas is celebrating new life that came to them in the person of Jesus Christ. The life that may soon be ended by cancer.
