Edit: New Blog Address
http://www.xanga.com/charites_thalia

300th Post

When I hit the 282th post of my blog, I decided that I'll only write 300 posts in this blog before transferring to another blog, after all, I have two others to choose from. I started this when I saw in a batchmate's (Primo's) friendster page that he had a blog. I inquired as to how to create one and blah-blah. This is actually my second one since I totally spazzed out on the first. Then Ina had Xanga and I couldn't seem to post a comment unless I had an account, which I thought was just for comments but it turned out I do have an account in Xanga. Then Ro and Lee had LiveJournal and to post comments, I had to sign up for that too. So now I have three blogs, two of which I don't use. I went with Xanga coz it was the second one I signed up for. But my current blog is still a work-in-progress... the address as of now, is: http://www.xanga.com/dolphin1122. I'm hoping I can change the username because I don't want a blog named "dolphin1122"... and here I bid adieu to blogger.com, who has helped me keep my sanity for 3 years... Cheers.

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Francisca Velasco
August 29, 1911 - May 26, 2006
Beloved grandmother

She got sick Wednesday and my mom, dad, and I drove to Bataan and spent time in the hospital. We were told that she had phlegm in her lungs (that's pneumonia, right? yet nobody used that term...) and that the respirator was doing 80% of the work to help her breathe. 20% lang daw yung sa kanya. She also needed blood (packed RBC) because her hemoglobin count was low. We spent Wednesday night and Thursday early morning trying to find a match because the Red Cross in Bataan didn't have her blood type. One of my cousins donated but it took 2 hours to process his blood to see if he could be accepted or not and then, after donating 500 mL, we had to wait 8-10 hours for the lab to process his blood so that it'll become 'packed RBC'. We needed two units so we were still lacking one unit. We found a match in Red Cross Manila and my dad donated his blood in exchange for the matched blood. We drove all the way to Bataan, slightly rushing because of the blood in the cooler, then we got hit by a stupid truck "na nawalan bigla ng brakes" on some bridge... the truck hit a Ford Lynx, which in turn, hit the back of our car. I was sitting passenger side and man it sounded loud. Luckily, by some weird stroke of luck, our car didn't sustain much damage. Because we were carrying blood and in a semi-emergency, we just exchanged license information and then drove off and left the truck and Lynx (which, sadly, was more heavily damaged). We made it to the hospital. They were going to transfuse the blood Thursday late evening and very early Friday morning (although we weren't too sure if my cousin's blood [the early morning transfusion] was still going to be given since we were told one unit would probably suffice since my lola was getting better.

We went home Thursday night feeling better and confident about lola's chances since, after all, she has been steadily improving since she entered the ICU. Friday, 445 am, my cousin texts me that they're going to the hospital coz they've been told that lola's BP had dropped to an alarming level. She texts again about 448 am that my lola passed away. My dad and I left the house at 6 am to go to Bataan. My brother, mom, nephew, and sis-in-law were to follow after my brother got off from work.

There was a sense of unreality that morning. My mom woke me up and I, on auto-pilot, bathe and got ready. Then I was told to pack, so I did. I arrived in Bataan and the body wasn't there yet. It was just... unreal. Somehow, all I could think about were memories that I have had with her. They were good times, good times.

The funeral was at 9 this morning. I've only been to two funerals and four wakes total (well, I went to the wakes of the funeral, right?) and somehow... it's different when a grandparent dies, isn't it? Less painful, somehow. Like you know it was bound to happen someday and even if it's a shock, even if it hurts, it's easier to accept.

But what really touched me about the entire thing was that every single one of the apos (with the exception of three "~favorite apos~") rushed to the hospital to visit her and see how she was doing when we heard what had happened last. The doctor had told my aunt, anyway, that they didn't have much hope for lola and that she should inform the family members. She did. Then my lola started improving. Imagine love like that.

My grandmother's awesome. Sarap ka-laughtrip. We're not close like TV and movie grandparent-grandchild are close and I'm sure my other cousins, who live with her or live closer to her, are much closer to her than I am. But I always thought she was cool. My cousins used to be afraid of her getting mad at them and yet she never really reprimanded me and my brother. My cousins once said it was maybe because of our dad. I remember we always called her "La" for short and could tease her about whatever and she'd take it well. When her hearing started going and we'd have to repeat things to her in a louder tone of voice, we'd end it with, "La kasi, hindi nakikinig!" and she'd just laugh in this self-depracatory manner. Or when she started walking with a cane, we'd joke, "La, bilis! Takbo!" She wasn't those boring types of grandparents... but she commanded and had our respect. When we were all younger, my lola and cousins would stay with us for Christmas and summer vacations and I remember that wherever we went, before we started running off and having fun, my dad would always be, "Oh, lola nyo" and we'd have to pause and someone would have to go back and escort her down the car or guide her as we're walking until she gives the okay for us to leave. We also used to ice skate and lola always found it funny whenever we'd fall and we'd tease her back by saying that she should try it and that she'd probably show us all up by doing some figure skating.

Her birthday was also a running joke. We celebrated it in December for a couple of years before she said that her birthday was in September. So we moved our celebrations then. Then my aunt unearth some documents that said her birthday was August so we moved it then. We asked her when her real birthday was and she'd answer either August, September, or December and when we'd ask her why she told us otherwise before, she'd just kind of shrug and smile and we'd say, "La, gusto nyo lang ata maraming handa eh!" The past few years, we ended up celebrating it December and midway between the birth dates of August and September.

I'll definitely miss her. She'll definitely be remembered. And at least I'm comforted with the knowledge that she went happy, content, and was proud of her family. And one can't ask for more than that, right?