1 Birthday, 1 Funeral, 1 Deadly Disease

My niece was diagnosed with cancer when she was 7. She just celebrated her 18th birthday. 

My nephew died last week. He was 16. He was healthy.

My friend just told me he was HIV positive. He is 38.

It all happened in a span of one week.

I guess life is just as brutal as death. It has a way of making things irrelevant. Youth, for one, doesn't equate to a future. My nephew was perfectly healthy and just renewed his interest in his studies after a turbulent year.

But apparently, it doesn't matter.  It doesn't extend itself to people who deserve it.

Time isn't always a guarantee. My niece went through 2 and a half years of chemo. She survived the the Big C... rather, she's surviving the Big C. Apparently, it's a continuous battle, one that you have to fight everyday for the rest of your life. Just because you live through the 2 and a half years of chemo doesn't mean you are saved. To this day, the monthly check up is still a torture. Every month, we wait for the news on whether or not there are blast cells.



It's been like this for more than 8 years and it will remain so for the rest of her life.

Then there is risk. We make several everyday and sometimes, the biggest ones are deceivingly simple. My friend was not promiscuous. He sticks to one partner and remains loyal until the relationship ends. He was careful and took precautions and yet, he got the virus. Condoms are 97% effective, he got one of the 3% I guess.

I'm 35, making plans to start a new life somewhere else but now, I am not even sure if it matters. Life happens and it doesn't really give a shit about who is living it. It happens.

There are two people in my life right now that is forced to use all their strength to hold on to life and the other wasn't even given a chance. He was taken in his sleep. It makes me aware of my own mortality and if there is anything that it taught me, it is this... I could be gone.

Comments

  1. You enter this world world empty handed and leave this world empty handed, nothing is permanent.

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