Much as I want to be happy because I was
given by our dear God another year of life to be wiser and kinder, I cannot
help but sometimes cry and be sad.
My cousin who is a doctor by profession and has been among our frontline workers in the medical field in
District 5 of Manila and her husband who is an ER nurse at the Philippine General Hospital, were among our health care workers infected by COVID-19 disease. Daddy Jun was the first to contract the infection from the hospital followed by her two children, our uncle, and later on Ate.
Gladly, my two other pamangkin were spared from the disease, Ashley who is now on her first year in the College of Nursing at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) and Adrian, ate's eldest son with special needs were immediately transferred from the vacant unit in the compound that Ate inherited from her late parents. It is also where Iram and I are also living. The unit was empty since late January this year after the previous tenant decided to transfer shortly after the new year.
It has been almost a week now when the result of Daddy Jun's swab test came out positive. While the rest of the family members came out on my birthday.
It pains so
much knowing a cousin who has always been there to take care of me since we were young and especially
during my stroke, as well as the other people, is now in need of health attention, yet she remains to be a doctor that she has promised to be and to the rest of the family who are with her during this lockdown period.
Ate feared for this day. That even during the early onset of this health
crisis her worry is for her children. And what she feared the most is now already inside her she peaceful home. Ate and her family are now battling this COVID disease.
But before ate and her family, it was my brother, Manuel who tested positive to COVID sometime last month. Sammy, as we usually call my brother, got the infection from his work in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. If it is any consolation, our much younger brother, Joseph is also working in another company in Riyadh, has been constantly checking on him, providing information that can help improve his condition. And thankfully, Manuel Jr. is now safe and COVID-19 negative.
Indeed, when we are helpless and uncertain, we can only hold on to Him
and ask for miracles and prayers, And at this time that even Iram and I could
get the infection, we can only surrender to God’s mercy and guidance. With the threat and chaos brought bt this global health crisis, it is our faith and relationship with God that can truly save us.