my weekend

This has been a really looooong weekend. And I mean long. My sister and I went home Saturday coz its her birthday. While we were on the bus I got a call from my cousin Krisca, she told us my mom took Nanay, my grandma (her mom) to the hospital. She had a seizure apparently and was unresponsive for a while. My sis and I panicked but knowing Nanay we shrugged it off. Nanay has a tendency to overact , especially when it comes to her health. She doesn’t like it when we’re giving more attention to Daddy (my lolo-her husband) than her. Especially when Daddy was diagnosed with “the Big C” a year ago. Whenever Dad would go to the hospital for his medicine, Nanay will come to Aunt Jean a few days later complaining of almost everything (headache, colds, hypertension, etc). Sometimes my Mom and Aunt would take her to the Doctor and the other times they’d just give her the usual meds (Ninoy or the one with 3 heads). Anyway, so when we arrived at home Saturday, Krisca took care of the cooking for my sister’s birthday. I called my mom to check on Nanay and she said she’s better, although she’ll stay in the hospital for her CT-scan tomorrow. Mom arrived around 11pm. She said Nanay is unconscious. She’s supposed to go into the Intensive Care but there aren’t enough space (yeah, our city has a very small hospital). Mom looked tired, told her to go to bed coz we have to go to church the next day.
Sunday morning we went to church. During the service they got a call from Nanay’s Caregiver, they’re prepping her for CT scan, I asked my mom if she want me to come but she said I have to go home after church and take care of Daddy.
After church we went home and my cousin Lhen and I planned to go to the hospital around 2pm. My sister and I took a nap, I keep dialing my mom’s number coz I cant sleep. Even my cousin who’s on prayer and fasting text me and said Nanay’s face keeps flashing in her head while praying. I prayed, I asked for peace. When I opened my eyes I saw Krisca’s text…
“Ate, wala na si Nanay”
With my sis and 2 cousins, all 4 of us ran to the hospital so we can at least see Nanay before the Funeral Service People take her. We ran into them at the exit of the hospital, Ate Mai asked the guy carrying the gurney if they can open the sheet so we can see Nanay. There she was. I held her hands, i’m not crying. I cant cry. My mom’s sobbing already, I cant let her see me cry. I rode in the van with Nanay’s body and my mom and aunt talked to the Funeral Service people to arrange the wake and interment. All of us are completely clueless when it comes to this. We never had anyone in our extended family die before. This will be the first. We had to go back and forth for the clothes she’ll wear and the casket is also another issue. We waited till she’s done then people started coming. My cousins and I are in charge of all the errands, and our parents are in charge of talking to the people since they know most of them. We’re just called to make “mano”. My mom wont go home, she finally agreed at around 5am.
Then I have to go back to manila to file for my bereavement leave and go back tomorrow to help prepare for the interment on Thursday. That’s my weekend, how’s yours?