How to die a beautiful death

How to die a beautiful death

By: Paulo L.P.

Chapter I:

Ext: E.Rodriguez, Quezon City

Int: Saint Luke’s Hospital

BGM: Pouring rain and strong winds

Time: Night, 7:30

Ever wonder what’s death? Where would you go after dying? Or simply what’s the logic behind giving flowers to someone you visit in the hospital? I mean, how did we ever got accustomed with this strange tradition? Perhaps giving flowers is just a gesture of empathy or if you put logic into it, maybe it’s just a simple present to make the room feels healthier.

The strange thing with customs is that, sometimes we forget where these strange customs came from, and how important these customs are.

It was 7:30 pm and the traffic jam was barley moving at all. The mid September rains poured heavily outside Saint Luke’s Hospital; the wind was cold and the breeze sounded like different whistles blowing from everywhere.

Inside room 314, Mary Lou Javier, age 91 is staring aimlessly on the plain white sealing of the hospital, lying weakly in her bed. Different monitoring machines attached to her were beeping different sounds that made the room feels eerie. Get well balloons and cards from close friends and relatives who visited, was scattered around the small hospital room.

Mary Lou wears a blank face not showing pain or grin, she doesn’t want to make her family worry about her, specially her only granddaughter that is sitting right beside her. But her family knows that she’s in a lot pain, just by listening to her every breath, deep pauses for every 5 seconds, and a random cough that made her granddaughter suffer in pity for her sick grandmother.

Mary Lou was diagnosed with multiple complications, not uncommon for her age, but primarily she was suffering from pulmonary edema (water in lungs) due to her weak heart condition. Mary Lou was already weak; her doctors said that she was already in a critical condition considering her age and other multiple complications like pneumonia and high blood pressure; she’ll need a miracle to recover.

Generally, Mary Lou Javier was a strong woman; she fought her way out of poverty when she was still a young girl. She’s a fighter in any situation, only this time, her body was the one who is quitting out on her.

Mary Lou’s family were sitting together on an old sofa, praying the rosary, facing the old crucifix that was hanging on the right corner of the room; everyone was silent, everyone was remorsefully asking for a miracle to happen, all of them seemed like they have given up hope already, except Mary Lou’s beloved granddaughter Jenica, who was holding her grandmothers’ hand tightly as she prays silently for her grandmothers’ health.

    

Jenica Javier, 18 years old, is a college student studying tourism in Ateneo de Manila University; she has a fair complexion, a wavy black hair that she would always ties-up, a natural pink lips and a beautiful Spanish eyes that would be impossible to ignore. Jenica is a pure Filipina, but her radiant Spanish beauty screams out her great grandfather’s Spanish roots; she is very simplistic and has a great personality; she is smart, cheerful but a little clumsy sometimes.

Mary Lou was living with them ever since her late husband died from a gunshot; he was a soldier who fought on the southern part of the country fighting against the rebel army in the Philippines.