Losing Chelsea and Black

BENCHWARMER
Ramon Dacawi

BAGUIO CITY -- The youngest kidney patient undergoing hemodialysis treatment at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center has gone to the great play room in the sky.

Ten-year old Chelsea Benito had yogurt for breakfast on her hospital bed early last Tuesday morning. After washing it down with water the kid  told Billy, her 43-year old dad, it was her last meal. “I’m going to another place,” Billy recalled Chelsea telling him. “Please tell Mama so,” she had advised just before she passed on at 7:18 a.m.

Her mother, Cecilia (nee Abance), was then on her way to the intensive care unit of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, to relieve her husband from his overnight watch.  “She was asking for her mom and when I told her she was on her way, she said she could no longer wait for her,” Billy said waiting for the pine casket to arrive in their ancestral home in Bengao, Bakakeng here. 

The girl’s medical case generated a stir, especially among Samaritans who had been pooling resources since last year to cope with the cost of hemodialysis, related procedures and medications needed for Chelsea to survive.

Billy and Cecilia had rushed the kid to the hospital last July, when she was suddenly feverish, feeling weak and began throwing up. It had something to do with her kidneys, the doctors said. They advised Billy to bring Chelsea further tests at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City. 

Before the couple could raise the amount for the tests, Chelsea’s blood pressure shot up and her vision blurred. Tests showed kidney failure, necessitating hemodialysis treatment, initially at three times a week until her condition stabilized. People from all over contributed to sustaining her life-time treatment, a four –hour blood-cleansing procedure each time, eventually reduced to two times a week, 

There were a lot of people to thank, prompting Billy to decide on a three-night wake, knowing some of the Samaritans who contributed to extending Chelsea’s life would like to be at the vigil. Tribal patriarchs, however, advised on an early burial, in keeping with tradition in relation to Chelsea’s young age. 

The kid was buried last Wednesday at the ancestral cemetery at Bakakeng that the Ibaloy community had protected for years now. The funeral mass was held at the Divine Mercy Church in Atab, the parishioners of which were the first to pool funds for Chelsea’s medical needs. Among those who responded to the family’s appeal for help were friends and former school mates of Baguio poet Edgar Maranan who e-mailed them of Chelsea’s grim fight. 

Only last May 20, Baguio folk and country musicians led by Conrad Marzan and Mhia Tibunsay gathered ina reunion concert for Chelsea and two other patients – Jun Willy of PTV4 who is also undergoing hemodialysis, and Linda Fines, a staff member of the Department of Tourism who is battling breast cancer.

Just before the concert, the office of Rep. Bernardo Vergara issued a guarantee letter providing one month free hemodialyis sessions for Chelsea at the BGHMC.  

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If he didn’t report to the Greatest Rescuer and Savior up there, I wouldn’t have known his full name. For many of us at city hall, he was, and will remain as simply “Black”. Not Rowell Bravo Garcia, which was, is and will be - now that we’ve known - his full name. 

Add “Senior” as a qualifier, for  Black Sr.  left behind Rowell Junior, his 14-year old son. Junior is in Grade 6 at the Mabini Elementary School. Senior is also survived by his wife, Marilou, 36, a teacher in a Korean school, and 15-y ear old daughter Lorraine, in second year high at Easter College. 

In a world which needs all the laughter it can get, Black was a real blessing. He had the gift of humor, a virtue which can’t be unless it’s shared. And he shared it even during those most stressful times, when his fellow rescuers were at the end of their wits, on the verge of giving up the long search for calamity victims. 

That’s why people of various walks were at the wake. They were recalling his jokes, wanting to remember him through those anecdotes he shared like Santa Claus dishing out gifts to everyone.

That’s how I’ll remember him, too. (e-mail:mondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments.)