Visiting Brother Ceci for the last time.

Went with Iam to LSGH for Brother Ceci's wake this afternoon. Rosa was supposed to go with us, but unfortunately she couldn't get off work today.

Iam and I decided to meet up at Robinson's Galleria because it's pretty close to LSGH. Because I was already in the mall, I decided to go to Saizen to buy more shrink plastic. Hahaha, it's still a sinful place to spend your money, so I just focused on the shrink plastic. I was surprised to see other kinds of packs aside from the various ones I bought before. Now they had the plain white plastic, plus sheets bigger than the A4 size. Iam found me in the stationery section where the shrink plastic was found, and she was pretty amused by the store that we decided to browse and window shop for a while so she could check out the other goodies. After paying for my purchases, we suddenly had this craving for Japanese food, so we ended up in Teriyaki Boy.

Lara happened to be running errands in the same mall during that time, so she joined us for lunch. Yay, one of my best friends meet my "breast friend," hahaha.

Parted ways with Lara after lunch, and Iam and I hopped on a jeep to LSGH. Hahaha, we got off and entered at the wrong gate because I missed seeing the gate I used to enter before. It didn't matter anyway, as the guard immediately pointed us to the chapel.

It occurred to Iam and me that ever since we knew Brother Ceci, we have never seen him don the black or the white habit whenever we saw him in person, haha. Every time we see him--during our recollection, at the Campus Ministry in 6th grade, and even during and after college--he was always in civilian attire. It was always a casual event whenever we got to see each other.

I met Brother Ceci in 5th grade, as he was the facilitator during our recollection that year. Rosa, Iam and I were just getting pretty close during that time, because I remember once writing in my diary (hahaha) that day that I didn't have much friends in the class because most of my messages during the activities came from Rosa and Iam. Yes, I was a very shy and reserved kid back then. Brother Ceci had seen our trio grow from the very beginning. In 6th grade, he was Zobel's Campus Minister, so our trio got hung out in the Campus Ministry with him during every other recess and lunch periods. He even let us read and borrow his huge book on sign language, plus doodle on his blackboard in the office. I remember that he sometimes called me "Apple," which was my nickname at home, and I didn't mind if he was the only one that called me that.

When I was tranferring to CSB for my 2nd year of college, Brother Ceci was one of the first people I told, because I knew he taught the deaf students there. Unfortunately, I never got to see him around, except this one time when my YFC sister Me-anne invited me to attend the noon mass in the school chapel with her. I noticed this familiar man sitting with the deaf people. I knew it was him, and I immediately ran over to give him a hug as soon as the mass was over.

The next time I saw Brother Ceci was when he was back in Zobel. It was on the night that I saw Godspell, and he was one of the people sitting in the lobby table. He had asked me, "When will I get to see YOU onstage?" And my only reply was, "Soon." And it never happened.

The very last time I saw him was the day of PJ and Joy's wedding, January 23rd of this year. Because the wedding was in Alabang, a bunch of us wondered if we could visit Zobel as well. I immediately texted Brother Ceci, as our trio had been planning to meet with him there for months, but we never got to follow through. It was the perfect opportunity. We spent quite a while sitting with him in the school's theater lobby as he shared stories about the students and alumni, who had come to Brother Ceci in need of a listening ear. He talked about the kids in Zobel that he saw grow up, on the outside as well as inside. He reminded me of my own "human diary" moments with my friends.

In my blog entry for that day, I wrote: Hahaha, Iam and I quipped that hopefully next time we see him, we have our own story we can tell him that he can share with the kids who are dying to listen to him.

We never got to tell him our stories. He never got to see me while I was doing what I loved the most. I'll miss you, Brother Ceci. My next theater endeavor will be a tribute to you. I'm so glad that Iam had insisted on going to Zobel last January so we could hang out and talk to you.


*Photos courtesy of Iam and Raffy.