Saturday, August 27, 2005

Lonely Old Lady

My dear auntie grace is in the hospital. A few hours from now she's going to undergo partial hip replacement surgery. I visited her in the ward to help out with the blood donations and I couldn't help but notice her anxiety over her upcoming operation. She'd repeatedly ask me how it's going to be done, if she's going to be asleep, if she's going to die on the table, if she'll be able to walk after - questions i've already answered a lot of times. this time i decided to scare her.

"hihiwain ka dito, tapos lalagariin yung buto mo dyan, tapos pupukpukin ng martilyo, tapos lalagyan ng bakal, tapos pupukpukin ulet..," i told her. (they'd slice you up here, then cut your bone with a saw, then pound the metal bar with a hammer...")

She pokes me in the arm. "tinatakot mo naman ako eh." ("you're scaring me")

Poor old lady, she's been anxious since the day she was admitted.

"babalik ka ba bukas para bisitahin ako?" she inquires. ('will you come back tomorrow to visit me?")

"oo pag gising mo dadalawin kita...kung gumising ka pa." (yes, after you wake up..that is, if you wake up.")

once again she pokes my arm.
and i could see the loneliness in her eyes.

******
Auntie grace is an optometrist by profession. Being single, she adopted a neice (my cousin) whom she raised by herself and sent to college. My cousin married, had kids of her own and moved to Manila with her family. Auntie Grace was left alone in her wooden house in the province. I'll tell you more about her in the next entries...

10 Comments:

Blogger chumsychums said...

weh. wag mo naman ganunin.

6:25 PM  
Blogger atticus said...

i hope your aunt gets well soon.
thanks for dropping by my blog. anyway, the rhinitis just got worse. what's the cure, doc? it's really getting worse. kahiya na. nakakapagod na rin to sneeze.

1:32 AM  
Blogger atticus said...

hey, thanks for the free medical advice. and rx. :) btw, what is qrs?

10:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Duke - Since I live alone too (and am not really old and am not lonely either), I can empathize with your Auntie Grace. But when I'm in the hospital, it's a completely different story. Wala akong pahinga. Everybody comes to attack me ... maybe because of the food and snacks that are always ready (my siblings bring them, my students eat them). **wink** I enjoy it sometimes but sometimes I just want to sleeeeeeep.
I hope the operation is successful. (Whose crutches are those? I still keep mine.)

12:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oooh, that beeping sound sure gives me the creeps...

How in the world have you managed to synchronize the beeping with the green lines?!?! Now THAT's amazing....

3:45 PM  
Blogger atticus said...

ignore the qrs complex question. did my research na. thanks for educating a moron. :) i hope your aunt is better and you've stopped scaring her?

12:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

gee because of this entry... im gonna change my mind about that old gingerbread house with a houseful of cats aspirations... especially if i have a nephew like you who scares poor old ladies like aunt grace :P

i do hope your aunt gets well :)

11:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

you're bad!!! telling her if she wakes up tomorrow?... bad! if i were your aunt i'd kill you first! hehe :)

8:34 PM  
Blogger atticus said...

hi, doc! how was your day? thanks for the prescription. i felt a lot better today. no clogged nose until i stayed too long in a badly ventilated room. there was aircon but two weeks ago there was a dead rat in the air vent. also, i am downing a glass of red wine as i write this and i ... hatsing...started sneezing again. i guess i'll have to stay off alcohol while i try to drive this away. thanks for being nice. reaaaal nice. :)

9:35 PM  
Blogger duke said...

chumsychums, weh, lambing ko lang yun.

atticus, thanks for dropping by too. hope your nose is better. continue meds.

bugsybee, that's because everybody loves you. my aunt has had her share of moments and enemies. i think i'm the only one with a fondness for her.

megane, thanks for dropping by. nope, the beeping sound isn't synchronized with the tracing. look again.

van, my aunt lives (lived, rather) in a wooden house. i would have scared her out of her house a long time ago had it been made of gingerbread.

mei, lol. she can't kill me. she adores me so much. :p

11:10 PM  

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