A tribute for someone special.
I went to a bookstore near our place to buy some cards.
After I got my change I hear the lady at the cashier said in chinese
(she's so young to have died) or something similar to that.

I eyed at her curiously and she told me.
"Wala na si Sia Sien..." (sia sien is dead).

Something inside me made me numb. I said to her. "What?"
She nodded then told me she died at the hospital at 3 pm.

Where was I at 3 pm...eating ice cream and manning the booth.

Now, come to think of it, she wasn't a relative, in fact she was the school's disciplinarian,
she is the strictest one I know, in fact, she's the only one I know, one step of her high
heeled shoes in the hallway would make students scamper back in the classrooms. everyone sort of loathed her.
Even me, in some way. But I know she's just doing her job. She's this unbreakable brick wall
that you cannot knock over with bambi eyes and cutesy gestures.

But when I graduated from high school, I begin to see the real side of her.
She wasn't the monster everyone claimed. In fact, I can talk to her just about anything.
She can crack jokes and she's really pretty when she smiles despite she's almost over 50 years old.
During the summer days where we were hastily finishing the yearbook, the group would talk to her asking for suggestions
She was extremely nice, and frankly, she became one of my favorite persons despite she would always tell to pin my hair,
pin my id, say my skirt is too low waist, etc. etc.

Sometime when I had the time during my first year in college, I would visit her. And she would say
"Oh, baket ka nanaman nandito?" (Oh, why are you here again...)
I would always tell her. "Wala lang, nangangamusta lang..." (Not much, just dropped by to say hello)
I remembered how she told me "Someone sawed off a piece of the desk..." and I said. "No way!". She nodded and
pulled a long piece of a wooden ledge from her drawer and I stared at it laughing.
The scary thing during those sessions was when she would ask me almost an advice on what to do about disciplining and stuff.
She would tell me about 5th grade students gambling or the boys who were writing in their notebooks because they were in a
fight.

YOu know how she relaxes? Go home, read up the newspaper, eat and sleep. So simple...
and I was glad she shared it to me...her feelings of tiredness, how she felt old and all that...

It was really nice.

But, time flew by and I began to be so busy, I couldn't even go into her office. even if it was about 5 mins away
Also the fact she was out the school early because last year she suffered cancer and I thought was recovered as she went to
the states and had some medication done...

There was always a time in my mind that I would want to go and see her, but it would always slip away...
Now she's gone. I didn't even know she was at the hospital.
I didn't even know she was dying...
I kinda miss her...

She wasn't only a good teacher/disciplinarian
She was a really good person.
And she was a friend for me.

A place in my heart felt really empty.
Walking towards ichigo this afternoon, I suddenly prayed while walking.
That somewhere in heaven there is a place reserved for her. And she would go straight there.
This is a tribute to my friend, and my disciplinarian
Ms. Lucita Sia.