MEComposing

We weren't even good friends in childhood exactly. But we played and hung out a lot.

And I wouldn't call her nice, but I'm assumming she's also not that bad. And surely she'd have mellowed out in time.

My most vivid memory of her is that time when we were already in high school. She liked a guy from our street, who happened to be involved with my classmate. She, along with some others who like the same guy, were trying to bully my classmate and she asked me for my classmate's number. I told her I didn't know and she was dripping with sarcasm when she asked, "Classmate mo, hindi mo alam number?" (no cellphones back then)
I was cold with my reply that I really didn't know because I was not in the same peer group. Then one of our friends said that she doubts i'd have told them the number anyway, if i'd known. True enough, had I known, I wouldn't have given it to them. I was not close with my classmate either but I certainly wouldn't let them get to her. And all for a boy who was not exceptional in any way.

Sheesh, no?

But anyway, like what I said, I played a lot with Charlotte. I hung out with her a lot. I grew up with her. When I entered college, I lost touch with all of my neighbors/street friends. All I knew was she was involved with a fellow Paconian who later on owned a computer shop in our area. Turned out, she married him.

Anyway, she is probably two years older than me at most. And now she is dead. I am only turning 32 this October so that makes her less than 35. And she is dead. Of cancer. And I can't express how deeply I was moved by this fact.

I doubt any of us wondered, ten or twenty years after that football game, or that chikahan, or her birthday party, if all of us would still be alive. Especially since she came from one of the richer families in the neighborhood. Some of our playmates grew up to be drug addicts and convicts, some grew up to be whores. You'd think they'd snuff it first before someone who was moneyed and educated.

But she's gone now. And I hurt for the family she left behind. I may not have great memories of her but am sure her family thinks greatly of her, that she will be missed by her friends. I hurt for the knowledge that she's leaving behind young kids.

All I can do is pray... that she is at peace and that her family will find comfort where they can.