THIS week, about the totally sudden death of an old friend.
She was on a Facebook chat group with other old friends, yours truly included.
On Tuesday, at 7:52 p.m., the friend started a video chat and ended it a minute later. At least, as per the notices on Messenger. Several hours later, at 11:53 p.m., a message from the friend, or so it looked. But it was the friend’s husband, informing us of the sad news that just three hours prior, his wife had died of an aneurism that gave her pain first in the back and then in the stomach. His words: “...and then she closed her eyes.”
She was then taken to the hospital but did not make it. It gave the rest of us in that chat group an extreme sense of shock, honestly. One minute, our friend is starting a video call. The next minute, she ends it. And the next message is from her husband and that she is gone. It is Thursday as I write this and I am still in shock.
And yet, with the rest of her friends and family, we ask God above that she rest in peace and that her family be comforted in this doubly difficult time.
This week, too, yet another service interruption from Internet provider Converge ICT. Baguio subscribers are only too well aware that for the past couple of months, noticeably after Converge cut ties with its former partner Beneco, the internet provider’s service has left much to be desired. In the words of someone I know, “They now break down weekly, like clockwork.” According to others though, “Even before they split with Beneco, ag kara awan ti Net da.”
On November 23, at a Baguio City Council session, said council asked Converge by teleconference to submit a technical and business plan to address the numerous complaints about their poor, intermittent internet connectivity and horrible customer service. The council likewise directed Converge to hire adequate and competent local personnel to look into customers’ complaints.
In those days, frankly, Converge seemed to not even be aware that their service in Baguio was deteriorating. Neither that they ought to have been text blasting their Baguio subscribers that indeed, there was poor or no service because of whatever the reason was and that service would be restored at such and such a time.
This month, on December 8, the Baguio City Council requested Converge to submit to the city government within 20 days aforementioned technical and business plans for the Internet provider’s improvement of services to its growing number of subscribers. Let me add that the plans ought to address the reportedly frequent line breaks due to Department of Public Works and Highways groundworks and those of other entities.
With Christmas just around the corner and New Year after that, here’s praying that Converge’s internet service stays steady through the holidays, especially. And that the steadiness finds real stability into the next year and beyond.
Season’s best to everyone. Merry Christmas!