Getting Word

As I opened up another reply back, instead plans or details of her trip, the email simply said, "Did you hear that our beloved MAMA has passed." Stunned, I immediately picked up my phone and called my dad.

As he confirmed the news, he started to cry. Knowing that my father was at work, I told him that I would call back later. I then called my sister and told her the news.

This series of event never happens in my life. Family news usually gets to me last. My parents, usually my mom, will call my sister and tell her the news. She will then call me or wait until our weekly call on Sundays to tell me what happened.

Getting the news before my sister was strange. Telling my sister the news was even harder. I’m never the bearer of bad news. I don’t really know how to pass on information of this sort. I deal with bad situations the same way I deal with my emotions of despair or sadness; I always hold them at an arms-length away…especially when I’m in a public setting. I prefer to deal with these emotions alone or with a few select people.

Since I was telecommuting this day and being alone at home, I stopped working and began to cry.

XXX

Later on that evening, I called my parents and we began to work out our travel schedule to the Philippines. The plan was to leave on July 12th and come back on July 26th. Since I only get six days of bereavement leave and have a meeting on July 22nd, I asked my mom if I could come back earlier. My sister also couldn’t get that much time off agreed to fly back with me on July 19th.

Everyone who knows my dad knows that my dad is a worrier. He stresses himself out with all the possibilities of how things can go wrong. When he found out that my sister and I were planning on coming back on July 19th, he made my mom change his schedule so that he would fly back with us. He was worried that since we didn’t speak the language that we would either get lost, get kidnapped, or get taken advantage of.

When I heard this news, I laughed and had to remind my father that I travel for work and fly on a frequent basis and that my sister has also traveled to Greece with a friend a couple of years back. I also told my dad that I was more worried about him traveling that I was about my sister and I traveling alone. After I assured him that we would be ok, he decided to stay with my mom in the Philippines until July 26th.

written by  James Coloma on June 25, 2009 from San Diego, United States
from the travel blog: Grandmother's Funeral
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