EMPTY HEART

Odessa felt the emptiness of her beautiful house adorned with beautiful furniture expensive curtains and most of all what makes more feeling so sad and empty inside and even her thoughts was going blank. To her the past exhausted her physically when he lost her beloved passing through obstacles abandonement and left alone to face the reality of a dreaded disease and here she is by herself with no one to hold on to, no one to cry on. As if the world has put her in isolation to ponder and put all the guilt to herself and make her suffer too. But to her she did all her best to find all the remedies of what a cancer patient was going to avail. Her husband Emerito who had been sick for so many years and Odessa shouldered everything to maintain their livelihood employed people to look into their ceramic business and that was the only thing she had done to improve their ceramic business aside from asking many people what could she do to help her husband find a cure. Emerito took all the medicine he was supposed to take for high blood pressure, arthritis , COPD(Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder) and the latest which is cancer. Sickness was the number one stealer of life. It may not take your life all at once depending on the kind of sickness and depending how you are going to treat that sickness. Emerito was not careful about his health but he indulge himself into a night life of drinks cigarette smoking with friends. Odessa attended to the needs of her children and supervise their studies. Odessa enrolled them in the private schools where the rich can take their specialized studies. MIna and Enchong took up medicine to the delight of their families on both sides in competition with their cousins on both sides. Odessa didn't go to her family or to her in laws to ask for advice knowing the tight sibling rivalry of who has more money and capability to shoulder all expenses. There were no family gatherings on both sides and Odessa kept her cool without contacting any of her relatives on both sides. Emerito had his own business and he would only give his share to Odessa whatever and whenever he wanted to give. But there were times when he noticed that Odessa was doing some home improvements like adding a room, replacing the houseroof for a new one, and rooftop patio Emerito would chip in and that's all. When Mina and Enchong passed their medical licensures Emerito felt very proud of his children. His illnesses became worst that they rush him on a wheelchair to treat his arthritis. He was able to control his high blood pressure but the pressure to his lungs because of his smoking was taking its toll on his body. Odessa seemed to be more silent than saying something to Emerito. She knew his family don't say anything against her but they have cold shoulders to lean on and when they talk to Emerito she was not included with their conversations so Odessa felt she was a stranger to them no family relationship at all or even closed acquaintances. His cousins would talk to Odessa but she didn't count them as a family either. There was a time when her mother told her that she must be careful to deal with them so Odessa didn't pursue a closer relationship but attended to their business that had expanded in the horticulture using their ceramic pots. The more their business boomed and Emerito became more indifferent to Odessa. Why? Emerito's family were very close to Odessa's family before because they like Odessa to become one of their in laws. After some shady tactics of relatives they were able to trapped Odessa to be Emerito's girlfriend. So that was the only purpose of his family to be known as their in law to let people know they were able to catch a big fish to their family. Odessa was not the type to compete to compare the social status rich or poor but she was after her children's capability to live their life comfortably and they did the same thing they work hard like Odessa to practice their chosen career and put up their own private hospital and they didn't expect their father to be one of their patients. Emerito had his own own private room and private nurse,. The nurse was Enchong's girlfriend so she was able to have a chance to meet her future father in law. Emerito became a frequent visitor at the hospital because of complications of his high blood arthritis and COPD. Mina attended to him also. Both son and daughter were able to build their own homes having many patients they have attended to. They even hired other doctors in their own specialties. One time Emerito was rushed to the hospital having lost his breath. He was intubated and put under observation. He was given farther test and had checked at MRI. Because of his age his body became weaker because of the medications that he had taken. Mina had now a baby from a fellow doctor Dr. Homi Chen, a Chinese doctor who also attended to Emerito who was attending to him as his cancer patient. Unfortunately, when he diagnosed him he was already terminally ill and had only one year to live. Mina and Enchong were devastated. They were no longer capable of giving many kinds of medications but he was only given pain killers. Odessa didn't expect how fast Emerito's health to deteriorate. They gathered together with Mina and Dr. Homi Chen, and Enchong to see what they could do to ease his pain after his confinement at the hospital in treating his obstructed liver where they found the bile duct cancer, a rare kind of cancer and decided not t eo for chemotherapy and radiation. His family seemed to have abandoned him and Odessa firmly stood her stand not to contact them. They hadn't took any initiative to give her some relief monetarily or emotionally but they were stonehearted. A loving heart that's how Odessa described Emerito when he told Odessa that his life was ending and told Odessa his last wish to have a full body burial not cremation hoping to meet His creator and live with Him in His promise kingdom. He picked his own suit to wear and shoes for him to tread to his promise land. To those who didn't know Emerito maybe wondering why his family was very close to him was his Love of them he left behind. It was not the material things that binds a family but the Eternal Love of God. Tonight Odessa will be alone to celebrate the holiday when Jesus Christ was born. No one will come to be with her as Emerito's burial was today. Looking out her window she saw the Christmas lights and thought Emerito to be lighted alone in his grave. How cold is for him now and for the first time Odessa felt her heart was empty without the love of Emerito.