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A story of survival
When I was in my second grade, my mother was expecting her third
child. We were ecstatic with happiness. At night, my sister and I would
always pray for the baby and kiss my mother’s stomach good night, as if
we were saying good night to the baby itself. But then, tragedy struck
our family. We found out that she was not carrying a child but instead
there were pre-cancerous cells in her uterus, which could lead to lung or
brain cancer. The joy that we had known and waited for turned out to be
a killer. We didn’t know what we were going to do. And I, only eight
then, wasn’t aware that much of what was happening around me. What I
did know was that my mother was undergoing chemotherapy for her
sickness and because of this medicine that she was taking, she started to
lose some of her hair and worst, she started to get pale and sickly and
very thin. I was very worried because though I was only a child then and
didn’t understand what was happening around me that much, I feared
that this sickness would take my mother away from me, for at the same
time while she was undergoing treatment, my mother’s father had a
stroke and suddenly passed away. I saw her agony when she was not
even allowed to visit my grandfather at the ICU then. So I prayed and
prayed and prayed. I prayed that my mother would be well and that she
would stop vomiting. I prayed very hard during the day of her operation,
hoping that she would make it through. I prayed hard after her operation,
that she would recover and that her sickness would not come back.
During that time, our family became stronger and we became closer to
one another. Our faith in the Lord also strengthened day after day. I
learned to depend even more on Him and I knew that because of Him,
we would get through this hard time of our lives. And thankfully, we did.
As I look back, I am actually more scared now just thinking about it than
when I was as a young child experiencing it. My innocence as a child
helped shield me from the horrors that were happening around me and I
am thankful that it did. As I grew older, I appreciated the things that I
had more than I did before. I treasured the people I had in my life. I went
to church and prayed more often. It’s ironic how a terrible experience
can change one’s outlook in life. But then again, if that change is for the
better, I guess it’s not that terrible after all. I’m just glad we made it. I’m
just glad we survived.
Janelle Patricia M. Kintanar
Makati Science High School, City of Makati
Philippines
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