Birthday Tragedy

Something strange happened on my 26^th Birthday. It was as if the cast of the full moon on my party the night before foretold of something that was about to happen.

Early this morning, February 25^th, my wife received a phone call about the death of one of our employees. Binangungot daw. It was the second time that this happened to the same guy; only, on the first occasion, he was revived and was eventually granted a second chance at life. This time, however, death took him while he was sleeping. It was kind of odd, that we, who sold the casket used by Rico Yan when he died of Bangungot, will find the same in one of our employees.

As if it was enough, a second phone call came as an aftershock. Another one of our employees was hit by a raging car, with a half-asleep driver, along C5. The car hit him with full force that it dragged him several meters from where he was standing ( he was waiting for jeepney at the side of the highway ), and slammed into an acasia tree. He immediately died in the Taguig-Pateros hospital.

Two phone calls, two dead employees. I never thought I’d see this much death since it is something of a commodity where I work: a mortuary-crematory-memorial park.

It is as if one’s birthday is a gentle reminder that we were born to die. Carpe diem.

Posted by: Allan