A Letter to Angel

Dearest Angel,

We never had the chance to meet but a part of me knows you already.
Not fully but just enough to write you this short letter.

We met your family today and we felt your parents’ pain despite their subtle attempts to hide behind their smiles and lively conversations. Your two ate’s (elder sisters) are more quiet than their usual because in their young hearts they know it though still void of full comprehension.

Not too long ago, your unexpected coming became a momentous event for your family.
Everybody became excited and each one, in great anticipation, would have certainly dreamed how you would become the apple of each family member’s eye. Both of your sisters may have been looking at some of their old stuffs and toys, wondering if you still would like them despite being outdated and out of fashion. Anyway, they know that it does not matter to you because you will just be overly proud to have wonderful sisters to play with and look after each other.

Your parents seek the best medical support they can find for you and your mommy. They wanted to make sure that your health and safety are foremost in their chosen doctor’s agenda.
In the end though, God’s plan for you prevailed.

It was not meant to be.

In a sudden twist of fate, you were called back to heaven while still only around 5 months inside your mother’s womb. And as it turned out, your unexpected coming was preempted by your unexpected departure. Your family’s joyful expectation became, in an instant, overcast with clouds of pain and grief.

I write to you because you are not only Angel as a namesake given by your parent but a heavenly-ordained angel, a cherubim playing angelic tunes with a golden lyre.

With your intercession, your family can grieve with the hope of healing in due time.
With your intercession, your family can cope with the pain of losing by being comforted by the truth that you are now safely back in our Lord’s embrace.
With your intercession, your family can move on to find meaning from all of these hurts.

I know you can read this and our faith dictates that you will come to your family’s side with your own prayers for them.

I know that you love them this much because we have seen how much they love you.
We join your family in prayers.

love,
Tito Rowin and Tita Menchie

PS. Please say hi to our Maia up there.

Angel was supposed to be the third daughter of our good friends but due to an unforeseen medical condition, she left them before even she was born. What makes the loss more painful was when the communist authorities strongly opposed and denied, as a matter of their alleged strict policy, their request to claim her fetal remains for proper Catholic burial in our home-country. Our grieving friends can only lift up to God all these things that has happened to their baby.

(originally posted on December 5, 2010)