Heaven's Daughter is Coming Home

My cousin passed away last Thursday.

The news of my cousin's death was so sudden, I wasn't able to digest the initial information. However, the relative who sent me the news was as serious as hell.

How could this happen? It wasn't like she was bedridden and all. She was quite a dynamo, shuttling between two houses caring for her own family and for her ailing father. (He went on ahead of her already.) If there was an award for self-sacrifice all in the name of family, she'd be the runaway winner.

Now she's gone.

The funny thing about my relationship to her is that it's her husband who's my actual cousin. She was the in-law who inured herself to our family because of her sweetness and kindness.

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I come from the younger set of cousins on my mother's side of the family, which is why some of my nieces and nephews are just the same age as I am. During my growing-up years, I formed a bond with two of these said nieces -- Sylvia and Christine. Whenever our other cousins/nephews/nieces would bully us, we'd confront said bullies as a three-girl team. Sylvia would cry, Christine would raise her eyebrow, and I'd provide the physical retaliation -- being the biggest among us three. (Not applicable in present time. hehehe...)

The three of us were my cousin's first babies. Their couple didn't have the ability to create babies of their own so they initially relegated themselves to rounding us up from our respective parents, bringing us to their home, and spoiling us to Kingdom Come. Soon, they added a sweet child to their family, and our three-girl team became a quartet with the addition of Julieanne.

Sylvia, Christine, and I all grew up knowing this couple as our surrogate parents. I constantly remember those times when the husband would drive us around in his Volkswagen and get into an accident of sorts. (Somehow it always happens whenever us kids were onboard. Go figure.) My cousin would then bring us to Cherry Foodarama along Shaw Boulevard and let us point to anything we like (mostly candies and other small treats), and we would conclude our grocery visits with each child having her own bag of goodies.

As we grew into weight-conscious teenagers, our relationship with my cousin also transcended. While the others were chastising us for our foolhardy ways, my cousin was always the understanding one. She treated us like adults when others still treated us as children.

Christine went on to live in the United States, and I left Manila to raise my own family in the province. But whenever I was in Manila, I would often stay with my cousin who, I believe, is among the most hospitable relatives I ever had. She always made sure that I never left their home hungry. Her usual question to me was, "O, kumain ka na ba?" (Have you eaten yet?) She'd offer me advice on places to go, how to get there, and even how much the fare would be. Most of all, she never ran out of kisses and hugs to give out in generous amounts.

I was in their place exactly one year ago, and while we didn't get to talk much, I remember hugging her just before leaving to return to Cebu. It was a short but meaningful hug. Little did I know that this was going to be the last hug I'll ever share with my cousin.

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I knew of my real cousin's infidelity a long long time ago. I especially found it profoundly disturbing that the other woman would even have the gall to come to their household and partake of their family's food -- as if it's a normal thing.However, my dear cousin (the departed one) never showed any anger toward that jezebel. Thus, I thought, if she has the power to dismiss her husband's infidelity and act like everything's right with the world, then why shouldn't I?

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It was Sylvia who broke the news about my cousin's death last Friday. She related in detail how my cousin began having difficulty breathing, and how she tried to contact her husband through his cellular phone to no avail. By the time her husband found her, she was unconscious on their living room sofa. She was pronounced dead on arrival when they got to the hospital.

As it turned out, the main reason why my cousin's husband wasn't able to receive her texts and calls was because his cellular phone was in the pocket of his other woman! And even she failed to notice the phone's ringing/vibrating!

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What if her husband did get her calls? Will my cousin still be alive right now?

It's these "what ifs" that are tormenting me right now. This, as well as the fact that I couldn't be in Manila to see my beloved cousin for the last time before she travels to the Great Beyond.

One thing's sure though: after all the emotional trauma my cousin has gone through, she has been able to exact her revenge on the people who did her wrong. As of this very moment, my real cousin and his kulasisi are being judged not only by those who loved my departed cousin but also by God.

It was through my cousin's death that her husband and his woman are now getting their just desserts.

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My cousin's sudden passing from this world has taught me another valuable lesson: that life is too short for dillydallying. One should treat each day as his/her last, and thus, he/she should always make the most of what life can offer.

I am at the crossroads off my life right now. I've seen so many opportunities just slip through my hands, and now I realize that with the diminishing opportunities coming my way, I should make it a point to seize them with whatever energy and resources I have.

I owe it to myself. And I thank my cousin for making me realize that.

May the Gods rejoice at your arrival. Heaven's newest daughter is coming home.

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This blog is lovingly dedicated to a wonderful cousin, aunt, friend, and mentor, Elvira P. Mana, we will all terribly miss you.

Change of Uniforms: the Sulpicio Lines Spectre

This news came as a shock to me. All this time, we've been counting the number of ships under the Sulpicio Lines fleet that sank with a high mortality rate, and we came up with four: the M/V Doña Paz, the M/V Doña Marilyn, the M/V Princess of the Orient, and most recently, the M/V Princess of the Stars.

Little do we know that there have been other ill-fated vessels carrying the Sulpicio Lines banner. Much of these accounts have already been buried under heaps of Philippine maritime history, but probably for the sake of everyone, especially for those who were lucky to have survived those tragedies, we shall unearth them.

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GMA News Research found out that Sulpicio Lines owned the M/V Princess of the World. According to the report, The ship was near the Zamboanga peninsula when it caught fire on July 7, 2005. Fortunately, all 200 passengers of the vessel were rescued.

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Here's something a little more spine-tingling coming from a survivor with a tale to tell. I found this from the Letters to the Editor section of Inquirer.net. I'd rather let her tell her story through her article:

I wonder why the vessel MV Boholana Princess, also owned by Sulpicio Lines, is never mentioned among the Sulpicio vessels that sank. I also wonder why there was no news of the sinking at that time.

I was a passenger on that ill-fated voyage and here’s my first-hand account: MV Boholana Princess left Cebu for Ormoc at 11 p.m. on Dec. 15,1990. Past midnight, the boat suddenly tilted to the left at an angle of 45 degrees. Passengers were startled out of their sleep, wondering what was happening. But there was no announcement through the public address system, or word from the ship’s captain and crew, about what was going on.

The passengers then scrambled to get life jackets. It was so dark outside the boat that jumping into the sea never crossed our minds. We were stranded for hours. Fishermen arrived to rescue us. But up to that point, there was still no announcement from the captain or from any crew member about what was happening. Finally, we started to evacuate the sinking vessel—with help from the fishermen, but none from the crew. Eventually, we all made it out of the ship.

Oh, by the way, before we left the boat, a guy asked us to surrender the vests we were wearing because they belonged to Sulpicio Lines. Yes, this happened many years ago, but everything is still so vivid in my mind because that incident made me scared of riding boats. This may be hearsay: while we were still on board, there was talk that the boat had hit a reef while the crew were in a drinking session. Still, we were all just grateful to God that nobody perished in that accident. It was all that mattered to us then—that we all came out of the accident alive.

In retrospect, we could have filed a suit against Sulpicio Lines because there was no announcement from the captain and crew about what had happened, and there was no rescue effort initiated by Sulpicio Lines.

Maybe the incident was never reported because there was no casualty. But all the passengers felt that the accident was caused by gross negligence. I hope an investigation into this incident will be conducted, because that will establish that MV Princess of the Stars was the fifth—not the fourth—Sulpicio ship to sink.

—GARDENIA LARRAZABAL, via e-mail

We checked this account with the Philippine Coast Guard. It is indeed on record that MV Boholana Princess, among 14 Sulpicio vessels that figured in an accident between 1986 and 1998, ran aground in 1990.—Ed

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Maybe Sulpicio Lines should try batting for a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the shipping company with the most passenger deaths? Oh, wait: I think they already got a slot from the Doña Paz sinking alone. I think that incident was recorded as the worst-ever peacetime sea tragedy.

I should know. the Doña Paz and the Doña Marilyn brought down with them people from my province in Leyte. These two ships were plying the Manila-Tacloban route when tragedy struck.

I will always remember that December in 1987 when Doña Paz sank. Everyone from Region 8 (Leyte, Samar, and Biliran) had a relative or two who went down with the ship. That was a very dark Christmas for all of us. Instead of celebrating the Yuletide season, days were spent attempting to identify bodies that were charred beyond recognition. For those who went to the Rizal Memorial Stadium where the bodies were brought, the stench of death and formalin was simply too overpowering.

Now, I am seeing the same situation with the M/V Princess of the Stars.

Apparently, the people of Sulpicio Lines still aren't affected by the fact that their hands are stained with the blood of all the victims of their negligence and greed. For them, paying up would somehow absolve them of their sins.

But tell me: how can you possibly equate a measly P200,000 with, let's say, a student who will never be able to complete his/her studies because he/she went down with a Sulpicio Lines boat?

These people of Sulpicio Lines may just as well be exchanging their uniforms for black cloaks while holding a scythe. For as long as their passenger vessels are still on the water, we'll never know who these Grim Reapers' next set of victims will be.