Kai!! I still can’t believe that my lovely, wonderful mum is gone!! I still find myself reaching for the phone to call her. Gone from us, gone from cancer.

Throughout her journey with cancer, I saw her struggling to make sense of what was happening to her. Esophageal cancer is an aggressive one and for most patients, by the time they experience symptoms, it has spread already. That was the case with mum, by the time we found out, it had spread to her lungs and liver. Was still dancing, looked healthy and sounded fine. Her only symptom, was a cough that was not constant and she said it abated when she used cough drops. She did not lose weight, neither was there a history of family cancer until now.

None of us thought of cancer. How could we? Her primary complaint was her blood pressure and even her inconsistent cough was attributed to her blood pressure medications. Her mother is still alive at 97 years old and my great grandfather lived to be 99. No history of smoking nor drinking. So how did we find out? An elevated blood pressure necessitated an ER visit and a look at her chest xrays prompted the physician to request a CT scan. That was less than 3 months ago. She fought valiantly, fought as a warrior. She wasn’t given much chance of surviving. But along with the cancer, she had several infections including covid and also developed blood clot. She needed several blood transfusions, and has been in the hospital for the past several months, steadily declining in health until she had to be intubated for 3 weeks.

In all that time, my mum’s faith never wavered. It was amazing to see her Faith in action. It is one thing to serve God when everything is going well, its another to do the same when it’s not. She questioned naturally,asking me what was happening to her but she never doubted in her God to deliver her. She foud it unbelievable she who was always so strong for others was dependent on others to feed her. Once during one of my visits, she heard me crying in her hospital room as I was about to leave. She looked at me and asked me in a surprised voice, what was wrong. I looked at her incredulously. She told me that God has healed her and told me to not worry. That’s my mum, still comforting us in the midst of her own pain.

She is exactly as God named her, ‘JOY’. She made everything fun, loved deeply and prayed much. For as long as I remember, mum woke up ro pray every day from 3am to 6am. Every single day. She led a life of praying and fasting. When home, she and her friends cooked meals for the less fortunate in their neighborhood. They would buy the things they needed, and spent the entire day cooking and serving meals. She loved God deeply and was always ready to tell you of how much she did. Always with a word of encouragement, she was who you wanted to talk to when things are not going your way. A devoted mother who was never ashamed to let people know how much she loved and fought for us. A loving sister, a generous friend.

I enjoyed being her Voltron, her defender. She would call me and ‘report’ others to me. She enjoyed my common sense and I enjoyed her optimism. We comforted and consoled each other. And she so made me laugh because we both had such a different perspective and that made our relationship so lovely
Thankfully, mummy you are finally getting some rest, this past 3 months have not been easy for you. But I am so proud of you, you never let go of God and He has certainly healed you as you knew he would. One of the Catholic priests who used to visit with mum, praying and given her communion, said an awesome thing. He said, “there are 2 types of healing, a permanent one and a temporary one. In temorary healing, God heals a person here on this earth for a time , but eventually they still pass on. In permanent healing, God takes them to him and they never feel again, pain or suffering.”
Now mummy, you have no more pain, you can move and breathe. More importantly, you can fly as the Angel of God you were created to be.

Rest in peace momma, we will be fine. Thank you for your constant and deep love and laughter. Give daddy all our love. Till we all meet again,
Adieu ❤️.