Ondoy After a Year!

Seems like just yesterday, September 26, 2009 Ondoy visited the Philippines. A lot of Filipinos were affected yet Ondoy shall personally be included in the memories of the mixed emotions I had at that time. It shall forever be a part of me; not because of how strong it was but due to what it symbolizes in my life.

The place where I lived was not affected that much. As I recall people on the street were celebrating the rain. The atmosphere was happy and all the people as I recall seems smiling. As the water moved up people enjoyed even more; playing; having fun; taking pictures among others. Little did we know of how it affected the lives of others due to the damage it had caused in their properties or suffered the loss of their loved ones. A sense of guilt perhaps after realizing that.

Despite not being in danger; it was a time when you need to be with the people you love; to know that they are safe or to get strength from them. It was sad that during that time of natural disaster my partner who was supposedly at my side was someplace else. The idea that he is with another person still feels like a cut of a knife in my heart. The idea that he can not rush to see what is happening to us at that time hurts like something without an equivalent word.

Yet Ondoy also symbolizes the very nearness of my family being complete again. And yes his return like the effect of Ondoy was not a bed of roses. It was like a wound that not even time can heal and the scar that it leave behind still hurts; perhaps just like the memory of those whose loved ones died during that time.

The vivid images of my children laughing and playing at that time can still make me cry. Seeing their innocence and the lack of idea that their father should be taking care of them at that very time.

Perhaps time will erase such vivid memories but for now I will savor the pain and learn the lesson that I should be strong for myself. I should learn and stand on my own....with or without the people I love and the very people I expect to love me!




.