This haunting, immensely sad but oddly beautiful, story by Patricia Evangelista begins mysteriously: Joy Marabot said goodbye at a little past eight in the morning of Friday, November 8, 2013. It was an odd way to say goodbye. She was alone, in the dark, soaked and pregnant and confused, pinned by surging waves against the outside wall of a building in Barangay Sto. Niño in Tanauan town, a thick wooden log pressing hard against her belly. Her goodbye ended with this. Lord, she said, Lord, I place my faith in you. It ends with an affirmation of hope: She waddles across the bridge, a heavily pregnant young woman wearing an Angry Birds T-shirt and a borrowed cardigan, small Michelle Ivory bouncing on the road beside her. Joy says she used to weep every night. She missed her youngest, the funniest, sweetest baby who always set the family laughing with her antics. Her husband told Joy to be strong. He said there were two daughters left who needed their mother. He said there was one more on the way. He said the new baby would take the place of Miley Faith. Joy is happier now. It may be God’s will. It may be the only way she can cope. She will name the baby Megan Faith, after her dead daughter. Before Yolanda, Joy and Michael had three daughters. Now they have two. Come the second week of December, Joy hopes to have her Faith back.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 09:35:51 +0000