Or the ruins of #YolandaPH, as it were. Here’s a heart-warming first-hand survival story as related to and heard by this blogger.
My kumare and good good friend Dinky braved uncertainty when, earlier this week, she and a friend’s son went on a rescue mission to Tacloban to pick up her mom and daughter (who, incidentally, is my inaanak). Initially, she and I were talking of plans that if and when Mommy Pinay and Ingrid manage to get on a C-130 and they land in Cebu instead of Manila, and she would not be able to make it to Cebu from Manila, I would take charge of things while they are there and until I can get the mag-lola on a commercial flight to Manila. Well, that part of the plan kinda went through a bit of adjustment dahil nga si Dinky na mismo ang nagsundo. But I still went to Cebu to meet up with them because I’d committed to take care of the Cebu part of the mission.
Tuesday morning, the 12th, Dinky and Iggy arrive in Cebu, they get tickets for the flight to Tacloban. They reach TAC the next day, Wednesday and I get a message as soon as she was reunited with Mom and daughter. I get another text later in the day telling me that they are flying out Thursday morning pa but if they can get a flight that evening, they would. They didn’t. And so, Thursday morning came, I woke up about 7am, I get a call something like a half an hour later while I was having breakfast in the hotel room and I hear Dinky’s sing-song voice saying, “We’re here!”
Of course, kulang na lang tumili ako sa tuwa, ‘di ba? Ayoko lang bulabugin ang buong hotel. So I tell her to take a cab na from Mactan airport to the hotel, I will wait. And as soon as Ingrid and Mommy come out of the cab, I rush out and hug them and syempre, iyakin that I am, we spent a good five minutes on the curb hugging and crying. Until I said, “Mommy, pasok na po tayo, baka masagasaan na tayo dito.”
In my room (the other room I reserved for them was still being cleaned), Mommy starts to recount the ordeal. She was in tears, so was I kasi I cannot imagine how it had been for them. Tapos, in the midst of crying and thanking God that they are safe, Mommy says… “Teka muna, eh, bakit ang laki mo na?”
tagadug-pis! π
FYI, the last time she saw me was ten years and about forty pounds ago…
Filipino resilience and humor is totally unparalleled!
Still, at the end of it all, dear God, thank you for keeping them safe. We continue to pray for safety and healing of those who went through the same ordeal and maybe even worse. There is a lesson to be learned from all this and may we all realize that to help us improve as Your people.
* image courtesy of www.talk.ph via Google Images
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