Giving them wings

"Later that year, at the turn of spring
Heaven sent angels down,
and gave Grandma her wings.
Now she's flying, and sliding, and gliding,
in better days."

- BETTER DAYS by Dianne Reeves

In a span of two weeks, 4 people I know were given their wings by heaven.

First was Onat, our former final artist, who succumbed to Kidney failure. He was only 32, and never did I see this happening to him at such a young age. Onat was the quiet type, but we'd talk a lot about our common favorite subject - jeans. We never failed to complement each other if we thought the jeans we were wearing are high on the "cool charts." This was usually followed by 2 important questions: where did you buy it, and how much is it. We were both big fans of Big Star Denim and all those funky cut jeans. And we never tired talking about that.

Once, I told Onat how cool his BC Ethic cap is, so he was generous enough to lend it to me. It was the cap I wore in one of my favorite photo shoots. He never asked me to give him the cap back. He was generous with his stuff just as he was generous with his time, stories, and work.

Second was Ate Ging. I heard that she passed away Monday due to a depression-related sickness. Ate Ging was one of my cousins in Bicol. Their house was just beside my grandparents' home that's why we would hang-out at their place often during summer. Ate Ging was very mild-mannered and quiet, but I often looked at her as a figure of authority. We last saw each other 2 summers ago when we had this mini-reunion in Bicol. Little did I know that it was the last time i'd see her.

This made me realize how a bad thing depression can be. It was also an eye-opener to how volatile life is. We were talking about what happened last night, and Auntie Ben - her mom - said that Ate Ging looked alright that day. She saw her kids off to school, she even collected the lunch that my Aunt sent her. Then a few minutes after lunch, when my cousin-in-law Kuya Dodie came home, he saw Ate Ging lifeless on the sofa. Nobody saw it coming, but it did.

Yesterday, John and Franz were found murdered in their home. It was apparently the handiwork of their houseboy and driver who planned a robber/carnapping. But as these stories usually play out, their plan probably went awry, then Franz and John might have put up a fight.

Last night, while I was walking and trying to digest their fate, there was a heavy load in my heart and it almost drove me to tears. Often, you read about violent crimes like this, but when it happens to someone you know, and someone who's a friend, it just magnifies the senselessness of it all. Why couldn't they have just taken the money? Why did they have to hurt John and Franz? I wouldn't be surprised if I read somewhere that they were high on drugs when they did the deed. I also read that one of the culprits left his license in the Pajero. With this positive ID, I hope they can capture these guys immediately, and give them the death penalty in an instant.

My last correspondence with John was about 2 months ago when I transferred to Harrison, and our building was just behind his work place. He was setting up a lunch meeting so we can update each other with our own goings-on, and at the same time, he could give me the Stroopkoeken that i've asked him as "pasalubong" during his last trip to Amsterdam. Now I'll never be able to talk to John, not be able to share travel stories, not be able to go to the videoke, and never have that Wunderman reunion we've always wanted to have.

Death is always a sad occurence. But it also serves as an eye-opener, it tells us how we should really cherish every minute of our lives, how we should tell people we love just how much we love them, how we should never let chances pass, because we never know when life is going to end.

Right now, I try to make sense of things with Dianne Reeve's song. That even if their life on Earth has ended, somewhere they're using their new-found wings to fly, slide and glide in better days.