WITH just over a week after my mom was buried, I feel I am still grieving.
There's a part of me that longs for her presence, especially that I am left alone at home.
I am happy that with the passing of days, friends know I am in my most trying moments with the pain at its highest level. I am thankful that I continue to receive calls and messages, joining me in my moments of sadness.
I take comfort in the expression of sympathy from relatives and friends across the sectors of academe, media, government and even simple individuals with whom I and my mom had acquainted with. It has also surprised me that one of my followers on the radio before had sent me a message joining me in my sadness and assured me of their prayers.
I am amazed by the reactions and comments on social media with the link to my article ("My mother's love" September 13, 2021), which has been trending for the past few days. Though that was meant only to express my thanks, hundreds of friends and relatives from here and abroad became aware of what happened to my mom. I apologize that I took the situation as private because my mom is a simple person and that we cannot gather as we want because we are under heightened restrictions.
Somehow, we need to help each other in this time of pandemic by observing limits on the number of individuals we meet while at the same time observing minimum health protocols.
As part of coping, I look at how similar my situation would be with other friends who also lost their loved ones. Just last week, the media industry mourned the death of four of its active members. It brought sadness not only to their families but also to the wider society where they use their talents to serve.
Jerome Galunan, a longtime friend and a fellow from my place at Calumangan in Bago City, died due to Covid-19.
Jerome writes here at SunStar and we used to be partners when we were still with the other newspaper. His wife, Ramilyn, was my schoolmate in elementary and their daughter, Rain, is my goddaughter.
Mawie Delos Santos, was our reporter in the south at RMN-DYHB. I was earlier informed of Mawie’s passing by my friend Toto Mangao who is based in Kabankalan City.
Mawie was active in reporting the incidents in the south while at the same time looking for sources of income for his family.
Another friend, Franklin Villanueva, was also active in the media before his death. He was engaged in reporting the incidents relative to the fight against Covid-19 and the politics that is brewing as it nears the elections.
Rushmore Ubas, was a known radio personality. I heard of his confinement and many prayed for him to survive.
Rushmore had a good following as he had been in the broadcast industry for many years.
Aside from our media friends, there are other individuals particularly the elderly, who also lost their lives. If they did not die of Covid-19, they would die because of other illnesses and the scarcity of medical interventions.
It is worse now that while we saw the surge in cases, there is less information and guidance on what our authorities are doing and what the people should do. It is as if we should be acquainted with what we read on Facebook on the deaths of friends and relatives.
We really cannot escape the sadness, yet, our resolve should not allow us to wait, witness and do nothing. While people also want to do their share, we want to know what is happening. We seem to have been caught flat-footed as our area is already saturated by the Delta or probably Lambda.
What’s new is that before we could acknowledge that these variants are present, we already had casualties in the people close to our hearts. Now, what is happening? Can we just accept we are in survival mode and feel the sadness due to the deaths left and right? Or is there still that we can do other than grieve for this situation?
I give that burden to our health experts who are supposed to steer the direction of this fight.
I wish we could still say that the government, particularly the health authorities, are still on top of the situation and not the Covid-19, the Delta or the Lambda.
Please update us on what is happening and what are you doing in terms of surveillance and means to protect the populace from the continuing attack on public health.