Moving On

I spent the week-end in Iloilo to be present at the funeral service for Jun's mom. It was a solemn affair- quietly dignified. It was a fitting tribute to a life well-spent. Jun, of course, delivered the most heart-wrenching and spiritually uplifting speech, so much that the pastor kept qouting Jun in his sermon.

Knowing how close Jun is to his mom, I was aware that he has a very difficult time letting go and moving on. Since I had no bible verses or Shakespearian qoutes to offer, I decided to fly to Iloilo, along with Jenny, another friend and teammate. Our presence hopefully, would somehow assuage the pain he was experiencing.

We were kidding him all the time about pensive glances, the blank stares into the horizon, ya know, the "far-away look", the "blaming yourself and the 'Why God, why?' stages-- but then again, making light of these rather burdensome and grave situations was really our way of making it easy for him to move on and fight depression.

In one of those long conversations I had with him a few months ago when her mom's condition started to deteriorate, I could feel and see the dread in his face. And so I matter-of-factly told him to prepare himself for the inevitable. Death is, after all, an event all of us will have to face sooner or later. Hopefully, he is OK now.