Thursday, October 8, 2009

George "Jojie" Tecson, 1969-2009

I’m wrote this blog at the wake of my cousin’s husband, Jojie, who passed away last October 4 after a 5 month battle with colon cancer. It was a losing battle for Jojie given that colon cancer doesn’t get diagnosed until it’s already too late. He was 40 years old.

With his days already numbered he decided to spend the last remaining days of his life with his family and came back a couple of weeks ago from the US where he has stayed since 1994.

It was ironic that he was the one who dropped by our home one day for a visit (with him all sick and all). But upon seeing him that day, he didn’t look sick at all. In fact, he was all jovial and perky. Actually I can’t say that I knew him personally but his demeanor that day was so contagious I was under the notion that we were “magkababata”. It was a short visit as they were on their way to the hospital for a check up but I do believe Jojie and I could have hit it off given the chance. I guess some things I can only speculate on given the circumstances. “Sayang,” I can only say.

Jojie had no vices and from all the accounts I’ve heard he was an over-all good guy. Funny how life can be ironic. Some guys guzzle alcohol like it was water, smoke like a chimney, live on fat and cholesterol-high diet and then live up to a hundred! So what seems to be the deal here? No, I won’t go into a diatribe about God’s will---not in my place in the scheme of things to do so. So what is there to learn here?

Well, our lives are governed by the choices we make. We will definitely make mistakes and we will regret some choices. Jojie made had his number of mistakes and may have regretted some of his choices but he was at peace with them. He stared death in the face and embraced his fate.

We will all have to face death in our own time. How we’re going to go is our own choice.

Find peace Jojie. You are now in the care of God.

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