DESPITE the fact that the years 2023 and 2024 have not been very kind to the family because of certain misfortunes hitting us and the woman in the house, we still managed to be happy during the holiday seasons culminating at the onset of the New Year 2025.
Meaning, that despite the difficulties that we went through due to our operation in late 2023 and the wife’s major health debacle in late 2024, we managed to join the laughter of those who were happy enough during the holiday seasons of the last two years.
But to be honest our seemingly happy disposition during those times was merely a way of concealing the true feeling that we had. For those who would not, in reality, it is hard to feel happiness in the real meaning of the word because the family was hit with a double whammy, both disastrous.
But we were lucky because there were friends who did not hesitate to help us defray our hospital bills. Hence, despite the close to half a million bill we had, we got support from certain government agencies other than the insurance system PhilHealth and the senior citizen discount.
Honestly, a friend of ours who was based in Manila when we requested his assistance, just asked his most trusted man to validate. It was as simple as that for him to make the decision to help. And honestly, we have no idea how to repay him for the assistance.
By the onset of 2024, we were hoping to recover financially and we were thinking of ways to repay our friend’s favor. Unfortunately, as of November of the immediate past year, our woman of the house started complaining of easily getting tired even in slight movement or very minimal physical exertion.
A subsequent doctor’s consultation disclosed an annoying physical condition of the wife. She had a lot of fluid inside her lungs and a lump was discovered in her breast. The recommendation by the doctor was immediate admission and drawing out of the liquid in her lungs. Other than that she was referred to an oncologist who after checking on her breast and conducting a biopsy on the sample from the lump, also recommended an immediate mastectomy.
Our world seemed to collapse and we were again confronted with the problem of mobilizing resources for the two procedures.
This time we sis away with whatever remains of the smoothness in our face. We had to call on our relatives to help and again we thickened our faces. We opened up with our friend who, again did not fail us.
And yes, we have a “moneyed” relative who granted us a loan with a little piece of family property as collateral.
Well, to make a long story short, we had our wife operated for both physical maladies. And our family too, survived the financial derailment that we had. But we are left totally scrimping for our needs, especially in the prolonged treatment needed for the wife’s big C.
And yes, we cannot pretend that we were not happy during the holiday season including the celebration of the New Year. For who will not? Our relatives and a few friends rallied with us. They were with the family “in sickness and in health.”
Meanwhile, we have no idea what is in store for us in the current year where we are barely into its third day. We can only hope that our relatives and friends’ families will not be as unlucky as ours in the last two successive years.
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It’s barely three months and the election fever will be in a boil. This early even as the official campaign period for candidates of national positions like Senators and Congressmen is still far, already the candidates and their leaders are slowly “crawling” to put in place the structure of their activities when official campaigning comes. In Davao City, we know that the candidate for Congressman of the second district under the banner of the national administration, Councilor Javi Garcia Campos, will have a lot of “crawling” to do. What with his nemesis Omar Duterte, a grandson of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte very well entrenched in his position as Barangay Captain of Buhangin, the most populous and vote-rich village in the second district.
In fact, it is our take that despite the long years of the Garcia family’s political stranglehold in the second district we believe it is far from enough to debase the Duterte popularity in the district. But again, Javi Campos’ derailing Omar would depend on how effective is his and his leaders’ “crawling” and how many resources can his patrons provide for him to reach out to his target voters.
But what actually intrigued us is why incumbent Vincent Garcia is not given the privilege to run for his last three-year term? What happened? Will the Garcias prefer to have a newcomer suffer defeat than the incumbent one who had not suffered defeat since his political career was launched in the second congressional district?
We are just asking a question that could be relevant to the people in the area
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