Unexpectedly all of a sudden

To redundantly say that his death is unexpectedly all of a sudden could be an understatement. My father, that debonair (turning) 65-year-old man, is even stronger than I am.

The sunlight has entered my room through the window. From there, I gathered it was time to get up for work. In my peripheral view, I saw my phone was vibrating. The light signal at the bottom part of it was already blinking. I thought it was my daily alarm clock, which wakes me up at around 7 a.m. I picked up my phone to dismiss the alarm, but then I saw it was our home landline in City of San Fernando (Pampanga).

This is weird, I thought. It isn’t yet Friday.

I was already presuming that the call was from my sister, Dette, who phones me every Friday to ask if I’ll be going home to the province. For me, that was peculiar because it's just Thursday, and though it would already be Friday, my sister typically phones me past 5 p.m. Having that in consideration, I had a gut feel something is wrong, so I immediately answered the phone call.

“Hello Pog!” my sister said in her trembling, hoarse voice. I knew she was crying.

I asked, “Oh bakit?” (Why?)

My sister answered, “Mete ne y Daddy!”  (Daddy is already dead!) “Ikit neng Mama queng terrace nanding abac, matuling ne. Dimdam mi na yamung mamangulisak, mangaga, y Mama…” she explained. (Mama saw him in our terrace this morning, dead. We just heard her suddenly crying aloud this morning…)

I was speechless while my sister was explaining further details and asking questions over the phone—details I haven’t clearly understood and questions I haven’t clearly heard.

After the phone call, I saw water in my vision.