Full Circle
My mother died in an automobile accident last week while on vacation in the Philippines. She went to support her oldest brother (my uncle) who was running for mayor of his town (Bauan). She was coming back from Manila with her sister & nephew (who was driving). It was nighttime, my mom was sleeping in the back seat of the van while her sister was awake repeating the rosary [1].
A truck was stalled and abandoned on the lightless road, blocking the only lane in that direction. My cousin did not see the stalled vehicle until the very last moment, swerved to avoid the crash, hit a hole and rolled the van several times. My aunt braced herself. My mom, sleeping, hit her head and never woke up. The cause of death was head trauma.
We were devastated, but in the back of our minds, we knew she didn't have much time and tried as much as we could to prepare for her death.
In 1997 she suffered her 1st heart attack, then her 2nd, then 2 strokes, then cancer, then a hyperparathyroid poisoning her with calcium, yet couldn't be removed until her cancer went into remission. She also suffered from diverticulosis and congestive heart failure. Yet, she not simply survived, but emerged, after nearly a decade of illness, relatively unscathed, save the weak heart. The cancer went into remission, the paralysis from the stroke vanished, the diverticulosis became asymptomatic, the bad parathyroid was removed and her calcium levels returned to normal in 24 hours. She simply refused to die.
She enjoyed 4 years of relatively good health, returned to work until her retirement 2 days after her 70th birthday, witnessed the birth of 3 of her grandchildren.
There is a certain poetic beauty in the way her life ended.
She spent the last week of her life laughing with her family and old friends in the Philippines, eating the favorite foods of her homeland, reliving memories of her youth, Inhaling the beauty of Peurta Gallera and the Taal Volcano, swimming (which she loved), feeding parrots in the farm sanctuary and living it up as if these days were her last without knowing they would be. She died without regrets and with every loose end tied.
Her life came full circle 70 years after it began.
She died in her sleep in the country she was born,
mourned in the chapel built on the very ground her childhood home once stood.
She will be buried in the country she called home in a cemetery not more than 200m from where she lived.
We find some solace in knowing she left this world knowing her work was done.
jv
[1] a customary practice while traveling