As Time Permits

The weekend was wonderful.

I requested not to have assignments over the weekend because of reasons other than what happened this weekend. Things weren't definite by Wednesday and I understand because one of my friend's Dad was still finalize his bone scan schedule. If it falls on Saturday, then we might not have the chance for the despedida as time permits.

She came and will stay only for two weeks. Her dad was at the hospital for over a month now and was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. We went for a visit Thursday and it was a crucial day because they were still at that time trying to convince him to go for bone scan. My friend was trying to convince him to go but to no avail. She wasn't there when we came. We talked to his father who was the one who told us himself that he's been 'staged.' I took this as a pretext. When I had the chance, I told him about what happened to me and what convinced me to go for CT scan. I told him that I share his conviction with chemotherapy, but not with bone scan. I told him that I opted for CT scan to know where I stand. I told him that six months from now, I need to know if I was improving and deteriorating and there is no way I'll know if I don't have a baseline.

It was Saturday morning when I got a text message from my friend. She told me that her dad went for the test and thanked me for convincing her dad. She said that he wouldn't have gone if not for me. I told her it was a good thing that WE convinced him. I didn't want to take credit for everything; but it's a good thing for me that I was able to do something this important.

Our friendship dates back to maybe late 1990's. She used to hang out at my video shop after her classes - she was studying back then. We lost connection after I closed down my shop and 2004 and we just heard from her dad that she went to Canada in 2007. We reconnected just this year through Facebook's wonderful algorithm which reconnects friendships lost throughout the years.

But, we didn't know that she was confirmed to come home had it not been from someone. What a small world! This someone is one of our friends; my sister's student in her aerobics classes who became good friends with us. We have been to some gimiks like night-outs and dinners and birthday celebrations for quite a while now, but we just learned that our friend from Canada used to live in one of her apartments, and our friend lived there for quite a while.

I am just so amazed at how this is indeed a small world we live in. I remember how Mitch Albom ended his book, "Five People I Met In Heaven," with something like: There are no random acts... We are all connected... You can no more separate one life from another than you can separate breeze from the wind... " (I knew this quote was from this book, but didn't memorize it... I got the complete quote here.) I still couldn't believe that I met a person she knows for a long time now and that this person has also become friends with us. You might find it trivial but for me, it's something to celebrate, really.

Last night before I slept, I thought about how wonderful life is. I am so happy that after all these years of not seeing each other and being separated for so many years, we were able to reconnect and be able to spend at least one night of dinner with our other friends. We all wished it could be longer but again, as time permits. She's leaving next week, and only time can tell when we can spend some time together again. But like our other friends, we know they are still there and we are just waiting for a time to be together again.