Dignity or Life?

It was a chilly morning in the island.

I stood closely beside my Papa watching the funeral of my grandfather. In a deafening silence, i could hear whispers among the crowd, describing what a good man my Lolo was. He fought during WWII, yet, many of then believed he has able to stack up one sack of paper bills during those times.

My curiousity led me up to the attic that afternoon and look for that sack and opened it.

To my surprise... all that was in there were his magic paraphernalia... no paper bills! These people were wrong!!! Grossly wrong!!! All these years, they thought my Lolo was otherwise... But he proved them wrong until last few days of his life.

Yes, my Lolo was a magician! Summer afternoons, all grandchildren will be up on the attic entertained by different magic. I could hear the echoes of our ooohhhssss... and aaahhhsss...mesmerized by the magic unfolding one after the other. My mind was wandering afar.... reminiscing those days we spent with him. All of a sudden, i hear the sound of warning siren ... a boat is about to leave. Papa called up. "Hurry up, this is the last boat that will take us to the mainland."

Then we began to sail... pangs of loneliness suddenly sets in. i took a seat by the boatfront, where i could gaze my Lolo's house... getting smaller... dwarfed by the mountains... until i could see it no more.

Sigh... How people can be fickle sometimes. My Lolo's greatest good luck was to die at the right time.