BRAVEHEART

The Grim Reaper hovered to sqeeze her soul.

It was almost over but her heart, reinforced with prayers and aided by the spirits of her father and brother, fought back with great courage and determination.

Not yet, and thus was how the intubated who lived and the comatose who woke up broke free from a feeding tube and the shackles of a urinary catheter and an intercostal drain to liberate free air from the suffocation of a venturi mask and regain composure from the beeping noise of a multiparameter monitor; strong and valiant in the face of danger and adversity that rendered a central line, a sequential compression device, and incontinence pads moot and academic.

He wanted to but why can't he cry hard enough? 

Perhaps it was the stone hearted pragmatism that, throughout the ordeal, delivered a communications work plan to nudge a Dutch email account, resolve the remaining financial agreement, and secured slots for Jakarta at Bangkok's Climate Action Week and Kuala Lumpur's Energy-Business Forum, provisions that justified the launch of a multi-country program practitioners guide and the first engagement with a digital economy framework agreement. 

He remained level-headed in the Monday meetings, tranquil and collected in responding to Manila's proposed presentation, drafting an agenda for Phnom Penh, and DocuSigning requests for payment. 

But resoluteness is just a facade, a survival mechanism, his heart's pleadings and gratitude known only to the deities, his most sincere and vulnerable moments exposed only in heaven's portkeys.

Like on Friday morning at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. 

Their eldest might have missed the surgical staple extraction and spyrometer exercise in Room 6200 but his daily post-ICU hustles from Tower 2 (10L) and Tower 3 (22V) revealed a steady and reliable heart that kept the refrigerated ginisang monggo and nilagang baboy from Bakal 2 warm and delectable. 

On Friday afternoon, the last of a phalanx of doctors signed the discharge papers at a cost of P17,640.20 in lieu of P2,603,453.40.

We have relieved happy hearts, grateful for her brave heart that pulled us through: she had a face-off with a flatline and prevailed.

Somewhere up there, the deities heeded our prayers and smiled kindly on us. 

Back in Bakal 2, the Samara Suntrust skyline faded into flavors of near beers paired with litsong manok and sinigang na ulo ng salmon, and a smorgasbord of dinakdakan, pocorns, luncheon meet, tinumis, bopis and the first of early morning walk exercises...