Heart Attack

News

Our helper woke me up this morning at 11:00 o'clock. I still wanted to sleep so I waved her off. The next time she woke me up, it was thirty minutes later and I waved her off yet again. After that, she stayed at my bedside and played a game in her phone. I was already awake because of her so I was expecting her to force me to wake up by now.

When she did, she said, "Ate Casiey, ang imong daddy nag heart attack ganinang buntag. Barog na diha para mukaon na. (Casiey, your father had a heart attack this morning. Wake up now and eat your breakfast.)"

I couldn't believe her at first. I considered the fact that she may be lying so I would wake up and eat breakfast. I figured she would laugh and tell me it was just a joke if I asked her for details. When she continued to talk about it, that's when I knew it was all real.

She told me that while my father was taking a bath, he seemed to be calling out for my mother. We didn't know he was already feeling bad because for me, I was sleeping. The two other guys were at work and playing respectively. Our helper was doing chores. We never would've thought that such a thing would befall us.

When he finished bathing, he suddenly collapsed on the floor and called for my mother once again. Our helper was not there to see him so she said that she was in the other house with my grandfather calmly(it's not far). My father called out for our helper and that's when she saw him—weak and breathless. His hand was clutching where his heart was.

Our helper frantically went out of the house to call for my mother who was about ten blocks away. When my mother heard the news, she also got frantic. She quickly went home, aided my father and rode him to the hospital. And that was the end of the story.

I was sitting in the dining table while listening to our helper explain it. Although she was not certain it was heart attack, it certainly did look like it. As I began to take food from the serving plate, I was taking in the information slowly. When she finished talking, my tears were at the edge of my eyes.

She didn't comfort me. I feel that she didn't want to give me false hope. As I chewed my food, I kept on wiping my eyes because whenever our helper mentions it or even when she doesn't, I felt horrible inside. It made me remember the time when he got into a motor accident. He was riding his motorcycle at that time and didn't notice the big hole on the road.

It was not really serious, but when my father finally got home from the hospital, I ran to him and cried. I remember he embraced me with his bandaged hands.

Thinking about it now, I really had bad timing at times like this. It was after school when I found out about the motor accident. My mother refused to open it up to me in the car for fear that she may cry. When we got home, that's when she told me about it.

Why is it that these situations always catch me off guard? Why is it that this always happens when I least expected it? I just wish I could've been awake so I could help my father at that time. I wanted to slap myself for being angry at our helper when she tried to wake me up.

Why, Lord? What grave thing have we done to deserve this? Why?

These days, I feel like life for me has been going downhill. So many things are happening and I can't catch my breath and take the bad news in slowly. Please, God, help my father. Please don't take him away from me. Please...