What have the big C taught our family? The 35-day ordeal of Bar in fighting against Leukemia was such a bliss. Accepting his illness was not even sinking in 2 weeks after it was formally confirmed by the result of his bone marrow test. It was so fast. With the kind of family that we have, it must be such a hard lesson that we all must take.
The fight against the big C for a 10-year old boy was definitely a hard battle. We were caught unprepared, and probably have hit us in a very bad timing. But then again, we have learned so much from this. We have learned to be united again. That even though, Bar is an extended family for the most of us, and everyone has its own immediate family, still we needed to do our part at those times. The history of our family being so closely tied and at the same time being detached from one another are much deeper than Filipino culture. We have uniquely evolved from just simply an extended family who used to live in an “ancestral” home – simply we are uniquely different (in both negative and positive ways).
Bar’s conquest may have been fast. We are still mourning. The demise of a 10-year old boy is indeed painful. We are mourning. It is our right to mourn and to grieve. But we are moving on too. In God’s time, wounds will be healed. And I know we are moving forward, not because we will forget Bar, but we will start facing the days of our lives with all the hard and well-learned lessons he gave us.
