An Answered Prayer

Last Saturday, my maternal grandparents finally came home after two long years of waiting. They used to come home every year, usually spending Canada’s winter season here. But after they went back to Canada on January 2008, Lolo Dinong was diagnosed with prostate cancer. A series of tests and treatments followed, preventing them from coming home to the Philippines. There were several instances that they almost but something always comes up, a new lump is found, or a treatment has been scheduled, or my Lolo was simply too weak to make the trip. The worries we had is coupled with fear that we won’t be able to see him again.

Then a few weeks ago, Lola Cely called to say that they just might come home, but it is yet to be confirmed. Until the last few days before their scheduled arrival we still aren’t sure that they will be able to make the trip home. Three days before their departure, Lolo underwent a radiation treatment that made him feel so weak and they almost cancelled their flight. Good thing that the day before, he felt better and they decided to go.

Saturday morning, we were at the airport at around 8 AM because Tita Des said that their flight from Hong Kong will be coming in at 9:55 AM, it’s not so obvious that we’re excited right? But then, the flight was delayed and it arrived at 11:24 AM. After an hour, we still can’t see them, you can just imagine the agitation and worry that we were feeling then, not knowing what happened to them. We keep on asking the information and all they can tell us is that there were a lot of passengers because four flights came in at the same time. Around 12:45 AM, they finally went out. Of course, the crying session started. We can’t help it, the moment we saw them the tears just came.

We all went to Antipolo afterwards and stayed there for the whole weekend. We had prawns, crabs, lechon, and a lot of deserts to celebrate their homecoming. The weekend was full of laughter and bonding moments. Lolo even stayed up for an hour to chat and mingle with us. He even threw in a couple of jokes at Lola, which Lola gamely took because she said that it’s very rare that Lolo would laugh these days. And Lolo, the ever generous one, gave all of us money because he said that he wasn’t able to buy pasalubongs for us. I promised myself that I won’t ever touch the money he gave me, I’ll just keep it as a remembrance. Plus, he told me that I’ve grown beautiful after losing all that weight, LOL! :D

It was a happy moment for us. But somehow underneath all the laughter and teasing, you know that all of us were sad. Seeing Lolo so weak, always needing Lola at his side, it hurts. Knowing that he won’t be able to do the things he used to do, like go to church every morning, going off to the market to buy anything and everything for the grandchildren, sweep the outside of the house, go over the railings at back garden just so Lola won’t see him going out again (LOL!), it’s disheartening. Then yesterday, when each of us were saying goodbye because we’re going home, he held my hand and said “magi-ingat ka, at sana makahanap ka ng mabuting tao na makaka-tuwang sa buhay”, I just joked “Lolo, pati ba naman ikaw nam-mressure?”, but inside I was secretly afraid because I felt that he was sort of saying goodbye.

We are all currently arranging our schedules so we can spend as much time as we can with our grandparents. We want to ensure that their stay here will be a happy one. They will only be here a month and we don’t really know what is going to happen in that month. We know that it’s just a matter of time before our beloved Lolo will be gone from us, we can see it and we can feel it so there really is no use denying it. Our only prayer, that he be able to come home before he join the Lord has been granted and we would always, always, always be thankful for that.