My Friend LIZ

I first met Liz in the summer of 1991 when I was about to take an exam for my first job at Fil-Cartoons. We sat near each other and got to talk.. I told her about an accident I had that morning on my way to the office, I was hit by a Ford Fiera . I had to be brought to the Emergency Room of the newly built Medical City. Fortunately, I only sustained bruises on my knees and right elbow, no broken bones although my muscles were sore and I could hardly move them. I still decided to take the test , so I asked the driver who hit me to take me to Fil-Cartoons. I came in late but they still allowed me to take it. I don’t know how I managed to go through the exam with my mind groggy and my body in pain. After the test, I had to go to the Philippine General Hospital to file for a Medico Legal, just in case something terrible happened to me, I have a record to prove it. Liza was kind enough to offer to go with me but I declined. I mustered enough courage to go alone and go through the same process of check-up and filling –up forms, and then went home to Laguna. The next day , I couldn’t get out of bed , my whole body was in pain specially around the hips and movement was an ordeal. The pain abated after more than a week.

When I reported on the first day of training, Liz asked about my condition and I told her I was fine. We became constant companions from then on. We always took our break time and lunches together during the training period. We hit it off immediately because she was really nice and funny.She was matured beyond her age because she got married early, so she became my confidante in matters of the heart. I was naive then, and wasn’t into romantic relationships. She was the one who constantly teased me about guys who liked me or she thought were interested in me. We had fun together,we went out with other office mates and spent overnights at the office to meet the quota.

If I remember it right, she only stayed for a year at the office because there was no one to take care of her child and she was having marital problems. She opted to resign and stay home. We still kept in touch . When she gave birth to her second son Ziggy , she asked me to be his godmother. Over the years, we managed to call and to get together once in a while to catch up on each others' lives. I stayed overnight in her house on some occasion . Whenever I had problems,she was always there to listen. She was always on the look out for “dates” for me. She made me go on blind dates with her friends. She made a joke that if it were possible, she wanted me to be her sister-in-law. She was always concerned about my love life or the lack of it. We watched movies, sang in their videoke, ate out and talked a lot. She was very generous with her time and gifts for me.On one of my birthdays, she gave me a dress, a blouse, a bottle of expensive cologne and a bar of chocolate, all at the same time. And when they had a vacation house built with a pool, she wanted us to go there but I never had the time or our schedules don't meet.

In 2004, we lost touch when my cellphone was stolen. I had a new number but I couldn’t get in touch because all my list of contacts were gone. Unfortunately, I didn’t make a copy on a notebook, it was all in the SIM card that was stolen. Years passed by unnoticed and I wasn’t able to visit her place anymore. I would remember her birthdays but never had the time to visit. Her birthday is on the same day as that of my nephew’s. She was just there at the back of my mind.

Last year, when I had internet installed in my computer, I searched for her in Friendster and then in Facebook, but I couldn’t find her. My predicament was that,“what if she has changed names or used an alias?” then it is impossible to find her. Also, I don’t know how to type the Spanish “n” to spell her name correctly. I thought I couldn’t find her name because of misspelling. My network of friends was growing, I searched from the list of common friends for her name but to no avail.

Last Wednesday night (June 16), I searched the name Ziggy Flameno, her son, in Facebook. I was so happy to find him all grown up in his picture. I searched in his list of friends, I saw his aunt’s name but not his mom’s ,and this puzzled me.I wrote him a message asking about his mom and gave him my number. After writing, I decided to check his aunt’s page and scrolled her list of friends…. No Liz…. I took a look at her pictures… And Liz was there… The label of the album was “ Remembering Liz ( 1969-2009)”. I was shocked! I was numb and confused! I checked her pictures but nothing there indicated what had happened. That night I couldn’t sleep, wondered over again and again what could have happened…

Thursday night, Ziggy texted me saying her mom passed away last year. She was hit by two cars, one after another. She was brought to the hospital but was not attended to properly. She was in the Emergency Room for six hours and only later transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. Ziggy said she fought hard for her life…. She died on July 3, 2009. Her birthday is on July 28th. She didn’t reach her 40th birthday…..

I didn’t get much detail about her death but I’m grateful to Ziggy for providing the information. He said he didn’t know how to contact her friends because she did not have a Friendster or a Facebook account.

I cried last night… I am crying now as I write this… I am sad I lost a very good friend of mine. I am sad I didn’t even get the chance to see her when she was still alive. I regret those times when I thought of her and didn’t even make an attempt to visit or keep in touch…I wish I did….