Three Horrific Mondays in My Life(恐怖を感じた3回の月曜日)
Everything was unexpected. It started to be an ordinary day that even my bravest self could not imagine the horrific ordeal I was about to face, but the seemingly miraculous turn of events strengthened my faith. Not just one instance in my life, but all three fell on a MONDAY. You heard me right, THREE MONDAYS, THREE DREADFUL experiences which I just realized how coincidental the circumstances were upon writing this narrative.
A Woodland Encounter(森の中での出会い)
Let us take a trip down memory lane as I take you back to my 21 year old self. University days, as I would recall those old times, were full of sweet memories. Those were the days I needed to come back and forth to different mountain areas, forests, nature-related sites to conduct samplings for my thesis on diversity of FROGS – I do not know why FROGS out of all species.
Final sampling week, March 02, 2009, twelve students including myself rode an army truck that we requested to transport us to our destination. For some reason, we departed the school at 4 in the afternoon, I had itchy feet as it would be my first visit to this mountain. It was indeed fun, though a bumpy road trip. As the sun went down and we were heading nearer to our destination, I realized the view around me was magical as we passed through giant trees in such a virgin forest.
Aside from the truck's headlight, millions of fireflies served to be our only source of light. That was when a gush of fear and goosebumps replaced the pleasant feeling I just had. A sudden halt of the truck terrified me. When I looked around, we found ourselves in a very small community with a few people living in small nipa huts but what added to my fear was the sight of men and women, even children holding high calibers of guns as if they were all alerted for a battle.
I did not know exactly what was going on, at the back of my mind this might be my last night. I secretly checked my phone with the intention to bid my last farewell to my family but was disappointed that there was no network signal in the area. Thereupon our driver got off and by God’s grace he can speak their dialect so he was able to communicate with the leader informing him that we actually lost our way. Lucky enough they were helpful in leading us our way out.
A Pilgrim's Mishap(ある巡礼者の災難)
Fast forward to September 04, 2017, Monday crack of dawn, my husband and I set forth on our motorcycle road trip with a happy heart as we had a long day ahead and several plans on how we would like to spend that one day off from work. Being a believer of the Catholic religion, we both had this tradition of visiting a patron’s shrine somewhere in the midst of Lindongon Hills, South of Cebu. Devotees as we were, every visit we made in that holy place renewed our faith and refreshed our souls. It was one of the typical visits that we usually had.
Arriving at the location, a certain energy was pouring into me and I can vividly remember the feeling that there was someone in that sacred place waiting for us to visit. I can always feel Mama Mary’s connection, love and motherly welcoming atmosphere though we cannot touch her physically. However, out of an urge to do a lot of things we failed to notice that we were actually in a hurry to finish our visit and head back to the city for another plan.
A bit tired from our first two-hour drive, my husband was driving at 90 kilometers per hour maximum speed. Riding on his back, I never lost sight of the road though I was not the one driving when all of a sudden, out of nowhere there was this dog from the other side of the road running in panic as another dog was chasing after it. I graphically saw with my own eyes how my husband hit the dog though he tried to sway the vehicle leaning to a direction away and avoiding the dog. In that instance everything went blurry in only a matter of seconds as we were rolling down the road.
I found my husband a few meters away from me with the motorcycle. I rolled down several times but every time my body touched the ground I felt like something was catching and supporting every fall and every bump of my head on the road. I even immediately stood up looking behind with the sight of our scattered piece of shoes, wallet and other stuff. A good samaritan helped us and was kind enough to check if we were all okay. My husband then approached me as he was holding our motorcycle and worriedly asked me if something was painful or what injury I had while I on the other hand was asking if the vehicle was still in running condition - silly of me to think of the vehicle first.
With the divine protection which I believed Mama Mary gave us, we were not injured seriously. Hence we managed to drive by ourselves to the nearest hospital. A few meters from the accident area I broke down and cried with the thought that, what if the accident cost me and my husband’s life? What would happen to our daughter? I could not imagine the idea of my daughter losing both parents at the age of three.
A Tempest at Night(嵐の夜)
Comes the recent one, January 02, 2023, Monday evening. Right after such a busy day of having five classes plus the gloomy weather made me really tired. I even had a toothache at that time but I had no choice but to look after my one-year-old second daughter as my husband was busy clearing the drainage outside when suddenly it was raining cats and dogs. Worse luck, my daughter was at the peak of her energy even though I tried to put her to sleep. I gave up and called my husband if I could go to bed early and he would take charge of our baby.
Simultaneously as I was waiting for him to go inside our bedroom, I was checking the web on random updates of the weather and came across so many posts about flooding in the nearby towns, people asking for emergency hotline numbers and even rescuers. My husband then was inside the room and reported to me that our neighbors situated near the riverside were busy evacuating. We looked outside the window and saw people come and go but I did not think something serious was going to happen.
Until I came to one post on my Facebook’s news feed asking people from our area, exactly where I was situated, to evacuate immediately as the river near us overflowed already. Not in panic still, I relaxedly asked my husband to go and check the situation on the bridge near us, so he stood up and opened the door. I was still on my iPad, my second daughter was playing innocently, to his surprise the flood had reached our living room and kitchen area.
The only thing I could think of was to save my daughter. I picked her up and grabbed one small bag with my gadget on it for communication. My husband in a hurry was asking me to evacuate fast as the water was already knee level inside the house and he had to turn off the power source quickly for safety. I went out not minding if we were wet. The backyard was already a sea of water. I rushed to my parents’ house to check on them and we all went out towards the higher level of roadside and even saw the chaos. People were in panic looking at the school in front of us soaked in flood as the area was lower than where we were at. My cousins and aunts from nearby were there to fetch us so we could manage to evacuate safely. What scared me the most was that my husband and other family members were left to save stuff that they could save.
As we walked through the flood, my one-year-old daughter started to cry as she could feel how frightened I was then I asked her to pray. She uttered just the word “Lord” while she hugged me so tightly, and that brought me back to my senses to stay calm for my daughter. Headed to the safe place, I thought how lucky we are as my eldest daughter, mom, and my 85-year-old grandfather were in Manila for a vacation. I could not imagine how difficult it would be if they experienced such an ordeal. We arrived at a safe place, all wet and chilling.
Horrifying as those instances in my life could be, I do not hate nor fear MONDAYS. Instead, I treasure and would live the takeaway from those remarkable days in my life. Life is indeed short, we will never know what comes ahead but come what may.
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