Scary Friday

Last Friday, before going to work, I attended the first friday mass. I offered the mass for my father's health.

During the profession of faith, half way through the mass, an old lady to my left about six pews infront of me collapsed. The woman beside me shrieked so loud because she witnessed the fall of the lady. I did not see the incident, I only heard the loud sound of something hitting the ground so hard.

The people nearest to the old woman , rushed to her side and helped her to her sit. The woman whom I presumed to be her companion started panicking because the old lady was still unconcious. The priest asked the congregation if there are doctors or nurses inside the church or if the men can just carry the lady and bring her to the hospital which is just across the church. The man seated at the back of the pew where the old woman was volunteered to carry the lady out of the church.

It was a scary incident and all I could think about was my late lola. She attended the mass all by herself almost every day when she was alive. I'm just grateful that nothing similar happened to her.

It was a slow day at the office that morning.

At around 10:30 am, I received a call from my youngest brother informing me that my father collapsed at home. I feel my knees weakened as I heard the news. All I can think about was what I witness at the church earlier that day.

I immedietely informed my supervisor that I'm going home because my father collapsed and is all alone at our house. I wanted to just snap my finger and be at our house at an instant to check on my dad. I got home after thirty minutes.

It was a good thing that one of our boarders was still at home at the time, because she had an afternoon shift at work, she heard my father calling her name.

According to my dad, he was washing the vegetable he was about to add to the dish he was cooking when he felt dizzy and his vision became blurry. He hold on to the wall and he feel that his knees weakened, and found himself falling slowly to the kitchen floor. But despite that, he still had the presence of mind to turn the stove off because what he was cooking was starting to get burned already and remembered to call one of our boarders to help him.

Maricel, our boarder at home was so shocked to see him on the floor and drenched in cold sweat. Maricel weighs around 115 lbs while my father was about 180 lbs, but despite the difference in their weight, she was able to help him get up and get through the flight of stairs going to the second floor of our house where my father's room is located.

Upon arriving at home, I checked his blood pressure and it read 150/110. My two brothers who worked at Pasig City and the other one at Makati City went home immedietely upon learning of what happened to papa.

My aunt, who is a doctor told us to monitor his blood pressure and advised him to rest. She said that hypertension is one of the side effects of the medicine he is taking right now.

By 2:00 pm, when I checked his blood pressure again, it read 120/90 already.

I'm really grateful, that Maricel was at the house when it all happened because if she was not there, my father might have fallen into unconciousness right there in our kitchen and no one will know what occured at our house. It would be me who will discover it at 6:00 pm when I arrived home from work.

That incident actually made me paranoid. I always want either myself or my brothers to be at papa's side. When I went out last Sunday to watch a movie, I made sure that one of my brothers will stay at home with papa. While watching the movie, my mobile phone beeped; when I checked who it was, it registered my brother's name. I suddenly feel a little nervous, why he was texting, my first taught was, did something bad happened to papa? Well, he was just asking clarifications about papa's medicine.

I know I should stop becoming paranoid because God will always take care and look after papa.