by Prof. Toti Dulay
I am not a religious type of person. I may be a devoted Roman Catholic but not the fanatic type.
I am hesitant to write this because I may look lunatic or stupid but I really talked to God. I did.
During the great flood caused by typhoon Ondoy, our ancestral house at the poblacion of Marikina, Philippines, including the nearby Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of the Abandoned, was flooded for the first time in history, as high as maybe 10 feet in the road.
My daughter Katreena, together with one of my maids, Joan was rescued by some neighbors by mistake and were brought to the nearby evacuation center at the Red Cross. I said by mistake because we were not planning to evacuate because my house has two storeys with an attic.
Braving the flood, I visited my daughter Katreena and our maid at the Red Cross temporary evacuation center and told them to stay there.
On my way back, there are commotions – several people are stranded in their one - storey houses. Some of them have babies. I joined the ragtag rescue team with nothing but my basic swimming skills and wearing a basketball short and a t-shirt. Being one of the taller volunteers, I was assigned to be in front of the pack, together with another tall neighbor. We are holding a rope tied to a post. I first encountered a lady neighbor desperately calling for a rescue. She rode on my back and I swam and walked her all the way to the Red Cross. Then I went back to the resvue scene…I met another lady whom I did not talk to for a long time, but really in need for a rescue, I also made her ride on my back and delivered here to safety.
Then, at the farthest house near the river, two babies with their own mothers were stranded. The water was getting high. We can not swim anymore because of strong current. We made our way by clinging into the post, and iron grills and walls. I even encountered an old man trying to join the rescue team, but is nervously clinging on the wall. I said….come on, move (because he is clinging on the wall blocking my way).He said, “I am afraid, I don’t know how to swim.” I said, “You better go back, your life will be in danger.”
We finally reached the house where the babies were stranded….me, a Red Cross volunteer, a guy with a thick Visayan accent and another guy whom I could not remember now. The first baby, we put him on a big plastic tumbler and swam him through the flood all the way to the Red Cross. The next baby, we decided to pass him through the roofs because the water was already so high and the current from the river was so strong that the plastic tumbler might capsize. That baby finally reached the Red Cross.
All were saved; the four of us parted ways. I was then alone resting on top of a big abandoned tent in the mids of the flooded street, desperately wanting to swim back into my house nearby. The current from the river was getting stronger. From my house balcony, I saw my son Esdee (who has a foot injury due to basketball) shouting: “Daddy, langoy ka na dito, aanurin na yang tent na yan (“daddy, please swim towards here because that tent will collapse soon”). I was already weak and I noticed that I have a lot of wounds in my legs, body and arms with blood. I said, “I can not swim now, let me rest for a while, can you get the bamboo near the balcony and peg it into a balusters towards me.” With the bamboo, I slowly cling my way towards our balcony, just when I am about to reach our balcony, the tent that I used to rest on collapsed. I could have died there.Maybe…because the tent will be all over me in a strong current from the river. My injured son saved me.
Days after the flood, I was in bed sick. But I did not let anyone know that I was not feeling well. I let two families stay in my house….because they were already driven out of the temporary evacuation. The flood subsided and the whole place was stinking. We have to remove the muds from our compound into the road…by hand. The dirt and smelly rotting meats and the garbage and the debris are all over the street which is unpassable due to mauntain of muds, debris and garbage. Several of my neighbours, including my eldest daughter, were sick.
I was sick. The destruction was so depressing, my wounds hurt, and the area stinks. No electricity. Food were rotten because there is no electricity to run the refrigerator.I texted Mayor Marides Fernando to please clear the road of mauntains of rotting garbage and muds…an MMDA truck came in next day which allowed us to pass through the road. Very sick, I went to BPI in Cubao and withdrew cash….
After that, I found myself standing in our gate giving cash to the passers – by and some neighbors…and barangay workers helping in the rehabilitation.My sickness, that I tried to hide, made me lost control of my usual conservative disposition of money….
That night I really feel the pain. Finally, I took self medication of drugs for typhoid, the same drugs that my sick eldest daughter was taking…thinking that since my daughter has typoid, I may have typoid too… I wore thick jackets…I am so irritated, but never want to admit, even up to now, that I was sick then…. I was going to die without seeing a doctor….How I wish that if I had to die, it should had been when I was rescuing my neighboors so that it will be good in the tabloid: “University Professor Consultant of the Mayor Died Saving his Neighboors”. Then, some second rate local politicians will visit my wake telling everyone that we were friends. Then some of my students will say, “mabait yan si Professor Dulay..mahilig magpatawa….(too bad, I will not be around to give them stars, hey “stars” is a private class joke among my students)….
That night, I was hallucinating and chilling. I feel I am asleep but my eyes were half open. Then, I feel that my whole body floated into the outer space… I see the stars….with different colors. I was entertained of the site..better than any fireworks display during New Year celebrations. After a long journey, maybe of my soul…or maybe of my body, I dont know…., I saw three constellations of stars in the endless space that looks like an arrangement of heavenly bodies that has the shape of two human being in long white dress walking peacefully and gracefully and a third one is a shape of a human face…all floating in the endless space…. Then the planetary arrangements that looks like a human face of a bearded man saw me.
I told Him: “Hi God. Am I going to die already? “. I got the feeling the he was probbably God.
He said: “Why, would you like to die?
I said: “Your will be done, but if you will allow, let me live”
He said: “Ok, you will live, what do you want?”
I said: “Thank you, I want to live as an ordinary person enjoying ordinary happiness while pursuing and achieving extra ordinary things”. (Looking back, I should have said, let me win in the lotto)
He said: “Ok…”
I said: “And God, if you want to experience again how it is to be human, you can use my body anytime. Just don’t let me know when you are using my body co existing with me, because I might become abusive.”
He said: “Ok”
Then I wake up……so weak, tired and thirsty, but not anymore chilling…..
Up to now, I still deny to my children that I got sick, because I never get sick in my whole life ever since and I am always bragging to them that their daddy has never been sick since I was born. Really. It is true. I don’t get sick.
Well, that night?……. Did I get sick? ……Let us put it this way, maybe, I was dying that night, maybe not, nobody knows..rememebr, I did go to a doctor…., but I was never sick…..my wounds in my body, legs and hands should not count. They were not sickness. They were just wounds, Ok?
