Family is family....

Desk calendar saying

My family has come strongly together now with Kibs sickness. Not that me, Kibs and my two (2) sisters were not close before ...in fact, we are too close enough for comfort sometimes and frankly was in the middle of a minor brewing word war  among each other before the lethal bomshell diagnosis of pancreatic cancer for our brother was dropped on us. Kibs also was most of the times a big disappointment to the family with the bad decisions he made in his life and went thru some pretty bad phases in his life too (his own doing) ....and it was either me or Jojing who was in and out with our support for him. Daddy, however was always all out support for Kibs even if it bordered on "enabling" and no accountability for Kibs. Dad is Dad and always a father and he would also be blindly supportive of any of his daughters if we were the ones in Kibs shoes. That is what I know of Dad...always a father...in deed and in the heart. And I could never understand before why he would put up with Kibs antics before and not resort to being drastic with him like we sisters would be. And now that I see Dad being with Kibs every day,I can only imagine how much suffering as a parent he is going through. The oncologist honestly but gently told Dad that it is difficult for parents to know that their child is going before they do.....that is exactly what is in store for Daddy and Mommy. And being a parent myself, how in the world can we be able to put sense and acceptance in those words "your child is going to die before you". I am sure Daddy heard those words from Dr. Tudtud clearly and know those words will come true soon but no parent could ever accept that in the heart even if his mind tells him to.

But with this irreversible fate facing Kibs now and the "D" word staring all of us in the face, all the past disappointments, hurts, pain, resentment, indifference towards Kibs have been swiftly blown away in the wind. Swoosh - out into the blue sky and quickly forgotten and dissolved with the feelings of just love and support for Kibs. Everyone has come together as a family. I also make special mention of my two brother-in-laws, Jonathan and Max, who has shown us so much support, love, generosity and most of all sincere compassion for our brother. It certainly is not the best of times for our family to become stronger and actually one of the saddest times in our family...but as Lalay said, Kibs is bringing us all together as a family....and aptly so. Now he is being true to his role as  the oldest in the family, I should say.