It took more than 35 years for me to meet once again Ninang Cely. It was a meeting that took months to prepare. She was living in the US. I got to know she was going to Manila for Christmas vacation. I tried to coincide my trip and we met finally with Manang, Dad and Tenpy around at UA&P. This photo was taken during that meeting in January 2007.
I am posting this photo just now, maybe too late for her to appreciate. I did send a copy of this to her through Luz, her eldest daughter. That was a month after I arrived back to Nigeria. Two weeks ago I tried to phone her using Luz's number to give her my birthday greetings - it was her birthday. The person in the other line was a young boy who said that I got a wrong number. I tried the land line of Luz. The man who answered identified me as a Pinoy and we started talking. I got to learn from him that Ninang actually passed away last May. To add to the shock he told me that Luz also died two months earlier. He identified himself as the husband of Fe, the younger daughter of Ninang. Fe apparently was out to take the children to a basketball game.
It took me time to accept the news and I decided that I should just call later so as not to burn more phone credits.
I phoned the next day and manged to talk to Fe herself. She confiirmed to me the story. Luz died March 18th and Ninang died two months later, May 18th. I serached for that email I received from Luz very early the next day. I got it from my Yahoo account. It's true, she actually told me in a mail of 20 February that she is very sick with cancer and could hardly walk. Thinking back, I remember now that I actually read that mail and kept her in mind. It was my fault not to have given much attention to writing again for an update.
May their gentle souls rest in perfect peace! Amen.
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