Heading Downhill... 

Heading Downhill...

I read from the news yesterday that a 4-storey building was razed in Manila near where I lived several years back. I continued reading and then it hit me. The building was owned by the family of a classmate of mine named Ed back in University when I was a freshman.

They operate a shop on the ground floor and lived on the upper floors. According to the article there were about a dozen people staying in that building when fire struck and it took firemen 11 hours to put out the fire. It mentioned the two casualties as Ed's father and his younger brother. No mention of Ed anywhere yet.

Ed was one of the brighter students in our batch. He finished high school from St. Jude's which is known for their tougher-then-most curriculum. St. Jude gradutes more often than not do well whichever university they attend. During our freshmen year together, I had the chance to work with Ed on a project (I can't remember which exactly) along with 3 other students (Charlie, Jeff and Jamison). I remember spending one afternoon at Ed's place supposedly to discuss and work on the project. Instead we were met with some nice distractions. There was a study room cum recreation room complete with weight lifting machine and a billiard table. From the outside, you wouldn't have guessed such a thing would exist in the building. Apparently Ed's family business did very well and allowed his parents to own such a property as well as send 5 kids (could be more) to good schools. Ed as expected did well during the first and subsequent years in school and naturally progressed, whereas I, haven't done quite as well in my calculus subjects, was left behind. And so, I never really got to know Ed much more as we never had much opportunities to work together anymore.

The finished reading the article and still couldn't get to any conclusion as to what Ed's status might be. It did mention two household helpers were rescued and that was it.

I later found out through another classmate over msn that the article was right about the two survivors. Ed and the rest of his family didn't make it (Ed's eldest brother is survived because he doesn't live with the family anymore). For a moment my heart sunk. Ed and I aren't close. I wouldn't even consider us to be more than mere aquaintance having gone to the same classes together. Nevertheless, I was saddened by the event. Perhaps this is just a natural reaction to the death of someone you know. Perhaps more so, he was my age and had been brought up in a similar Filipion-Chinese environment, having went to the same university, achieving the same degree. So many things in common. By some twist of fate, it could very well be me caught in the fire and cease to exist today.

Fact is I'm here and I'll just have to make the most of it because one never knows when it'll be all over. Morbid as it is, that's just life.

Rest in peace, Ed.