It was a normal day at work.  What makes it abnormal was the noise and air pollution brought by the wall painting so that afternoon, me and some some officemates went in to the empty Education office to avoid the strong fume of paint.  My office mates and I enjoyed the time talking just anything under the sun.  We were serious one moment, then laughing at another moment, then serious and then laugh again.  All was normal until — someone came into the room and said: “Did you know? Pastor Ondap is dead!”  All of us screamed WHAT?  But personally i heard it was a wailing question.  I was then full of adrenaline: call up Pastor Ondap or call up my boss, or call up anyone up in CDO to really confirm if this bad news is true.  Seems everyone in the room was out of their seat.  Ma’am Lei tried to call up her sister.  Then i ran to the other office to dial Kuya’s number.  Thank God, his phone rang…rang…long time…no one answered!  I ran out of the room and i said no one answers!  I started to panick.  Then i remembered i got the number of his sis-inlaw so i dialed her number.  It rang. Rang..rang…after quite sometime she picked it up –and before i can ask her what i want and before she can speak, i can hear her and her background wailing.  I asked where’s Kuya and she answered me with pain in her crying voice — Kuya is already pronounced dead.  My voice wavered and my tears started to fall.

I looked up into the faces of my companions and color drains out of their faces.  All were shocked!

The last time i saw Kuya was April 26 afternoon.  The last time he texted me was Saturday that week so it’s like i don’t like to believe what i heard.  I wanted to contact my boss to relay the news but I can’t find him.  My phone got no credit.  But i just assume he already knew the news.

After relaxing our shocked spirits, my hunger was obvious that i really started to look for food.  So Ma’am Lai treated me and Ma’am Ruby in the Dietary for a snacks.    It lifted my hungry spirit but the sadness started to dwell in since all we talked about is the happy and fun memories spent with Kuya.

The 3 of us were sure that the next day (June 12) my boss would be going and the 3 of us will be on the top list of his passengers.  9 of us were on his vehicle that Friday while more were on the NHR.

Here are some of the Gen Ed faculty with Kuya during the education trip to Dapitan.