I spent most of my childhood days with my grandmother. I have had the opportunity to share great stories with her, from her dating years to raising her kids including my mom. She was among the wisest that I have spoken to. I never had a dull moment with her, although at times, I upset her with my attitude as a kid. Being the only daughter in a family of four and having a very strict mom, childhood was rather challenging. Me and my mom, well, we have our differences, so I chose to stay with my grandmother, who at that time was already in her mid 70's. I can still remember every time my mom asks me to go home with them, I would always complain cause I wanted to stay with gran gran. I would always cry at night endlessly and would beg them to let me stay with her. And at the end of the day, I always win.
Not until I was in College did my parents demanded me to stay and live with them. But even if this was the case, I would always spend the holidays, especially Christmas, with my gran. I am proud to have spent half of my life with her.
The most important thing that I learned from the most influential person in my life is the value of prayers. Not a day pass that I don't see her pray, though, she is not so religious and rarely visits the Church. She always prays for everyone, especially her son and daughters, most importantly, my mom. She's had a very special relationship with my mom, which brought some "issues" to the rest of their family. Nevertheless, she's loved all of them. Daily prayers must have been her secret for having a healthy life. She have never been sick and she rarely complaint of any aches or troubles as compared with other elderly people that I know of. She, at mid 70 was at the top of her shape.
Then one day, as she was paying her son a visit and as she waits for the car in the driveway, she followed one of her grandchild as the kid ran towards the gate not knowing that my uncle's car was fast approaching. So, all hell broke lose when she was hit by my uncle's car and was unconscious. Half of the family was furious with what happened. I was furious as well, but I understood that it was an accident and no one wanted for it to happen. I found her in the hospital with a lot of tubes and what have you. I could hardly believe. I was shaken but I still believe she can survive the accident. Never knew her to be a quitter, ever. And much to my expectation, she did survive and was discharged in no time. No surgeries and not much procedure was done. But, she cannot walk. Apparently she was diagnosed to have a fractured hip! They were hesitant to perform any surgery because of her age. Doctors were saying that her age is already a risk factor which I refused to believe. My grandma is a fighter, I tried telling everyone but no one listened. And I was left in tears, unable to accept the fact that she will not be able to walk. Every morning I would talk to her, make sure she is okay and that there is no pain until I could no longer stand it. I pleaded to everyone to give me a chance to look for the best orthopedic surgeon who may give a second opinion on her case, and got the chance I asked for. So, being a pre-medical student at that time, I consulted with different institutions and doctors on what can be done in her case. Spent days waiting for call backs, waiting for appointments and schedule, until my efforts paid off. I found one specialist, a top orthopedic doctor from a well know hospital, costly, but my uncle can take care of the expenses since my grandmother left them with a very good business. So I called everyone in and I told them the information that the doctor told me and that they are optimistic and would want to see my granny as soon s possible. So my uncle and me took the time off the following week to have the appointment scheduled for them to assess my gran gran. As soon as we got in the hospital, the doctors proceeded to perform some tests on granny and deliberated on how and what to do. After some tests were done, we headed home and I was advised to wait for any feedbacks. After three days I got the news, they couldn't do it, all they could offer were additional prescriptions and nothing more. I was left in the dark, slowly losing hope. I did tried, a lot of times, only for nothing. And you know what, it is when we start to lose hope that we start to look for miracles. As I was in the bus while heading for the school one day, I thought of passing by a church probably an hour from school. I thought to myself, if I could not accept the things that are happening, I might as well ask God for help in accepting what happened to my grandma. So I did, after school I went to Baclaran Church. It is a place where you can find people who are a lot like me, trying to find a miracle. As soon as I got there, my energy was already low and I felt like I will burst into tears any moment, and I was right. As I knelt in the middle of the aisle, tears started to fall like water from the faucet. I could hardly speak. I could only cry. I can see the crucifix from a distance so what I did was to walk in the kneeling position. I cared less if my knees would hurt, I wanted to pour out all the frustrations and hurt that I have in my heart. And when I reached the altar, I didn't actually prayed, tears was running down my face, I couldn't put my head up to pray, I just closed my eyes, kept my ehad bowed down and told the Lord, "you know what's inside my heart... I will give up all the things that upsets you if you will give me the one thing I wish for..." Then I stood up and wiped my tears and then head for home. Guys, this may seem so unnatural but you know what, after 3 days, my grandma woke me up! SHE CAN WALK!!! I can hardly believe it... Indeed, faith can move mountains...
I strongly advise everyone of us to pray, not just in times when we need a miracle, but every minute that you are happy, pray. Every minute that you are persecuted, pray. It is our only shield in this world of madness and our only refuge in times of storms in our lives. Believe me when I say that a prayer that comes from the deepest part of your heart are the prayers that the Lord is waiting for. He is always patiently waiting for all of us to reach out and believe that our prayers will be answered.
