The Pain of Losing a Loved One

I recently lost my grandpa on my father´s side. He was a dear old man who was bed ridden for over three years before he finally gave in. We received the news via text message from my dad that he´s gone last Saturday night at 1am here in Europe which was early Sunday in the Philippines, and I cried my eyes out. Throughout my grieving process, my husband was beside me, embracing. My grandpa´s burial was today.

There´s a lot to share about this event, but it´s still very painful to share as of now. Once the pain subsides, I´ll go back to this story and share it here because there´s a lot to learn from it.

For now, check the poem I wrote for him two weeks before he left - The Medicine. I originally posted it at my poetry blog.

Photo credit: weheartit

Lightning at noon time is claiming life …

I was entering the Physics laboratory yesterday on the fourth period for my IGCSE Mathematics class with the year 10 when I noticed some commotions among my students. They looked like something very disturbing has occurred. I asked them what was the problem and when they told me, I was totally disturbed by the news.

A good friend of my students was struck by an unexpected lightning on Wednesday at 3 o’clock in the afternoon while playing football in the field just within his school’s compound. The boy is fifteen years old, one of the tallest in the team and the best soccer player in their school. Just like every normal day, he picked his sports gear after school and headed to the soccer field along with his pals. There was no rain, no sign of any coming storm and the weather was perfectly fine.
The game was very stiff. A mate gave a good pass and the boy jumped high to do a head bat; simultaneously, the goalie of the opponent team jumped as high extending his arm to block the ball. Just then, the treacherous lightning struck furiously hitting both of them at once. The boy’s ear drums burst out; his eye balls came out while his head exploded splashing brain and blood in the field. The goalie was struck in the hand down to his arm. The lightning, seemed content by its damage, left as quick as it came leaving the grasses burned black.

The goalie was unable to move for two days but is now recovering. The boy however is still fighting for life. Report says he was already dead but his heart fought back bringing him back to life. He is supported by machines. There is one deep hole under his right ear and a big hole at the crown of his head. He has as small as two percentage of surviving.

The boy is an Indian Sikh and he wears a turban-like cloth on his head. Since hair are all pulled up and stocked under the turban, the boy uses a “salai”, a metal stick usually about fifteen centimeters long to fix any falling lock of hair. It is inserted inside the hair if not in use. When the lightning struck, the metal caught the current which caused the explosion of his head.

I felt bad after I heard the news. I don’t know anything about the boy but the information was enough for me to imagine the pain that this kid and his parents are suffering right now. Anger and sorrow are inevitable in this situation. But who to blame? Even nature can be hostile at times and that’s a fact in this world of life.

Update: 02/06/09

Eventually, the kid died on the fifth day. It must be very sad to the family and to all friends but almost everyone agreed that it was the best for him. If he did make it, he would be totally paralyzed, no memory, no vision, no hearing and no nothing. That would even be worst than dying.