It was most appropriate that my aunt, Aurora Quetulio Donadillo, passed-away March 25, 2011 It was the feast of the Annunciation. It was a most suitable day to meet her Creator as a faithful daughter of the Church and as a Marian devotee.
According to her sister (my mother), as a young lady she had considered entering the novitiate and later to take the vows as a religious. Yet God had a different plan for her. She may not have been called to be a religious but her calling was to be a faithful wife and a beloved mother.
I will always remember aunt Rory (as she was fondly called) as a timid and shy person. She was modest in every way. She was very sensitive yet she has the capacity to bear in silence whatever that depressed her. Although she has a confrontational side too, it was outlast by her nature to withdraw from upsetting situations. But she bears difficult situations by prayer, particularly of the Holy Rosary.
As any typical Filipino-Catholic family, we have a special devotion to the Virgin Mary (see blogpost ). Aunt Rory reared her daughters within the folds of the Church. Ever since I can remember, their family has closed affinity with the Church clergy particularly the Dominicans. The Catholic missionaries in their community had become personal friends. Prominent among them was the late Fr. Leo Hofstee O.P. a German prelate who immensely served the poor of the community until his death. Other members of the cleric became extended family that in any necessities can be counted on for spiritual support.
My aunt graduated with the B.S. degree in Physical Therapy at the University of Santo Tomas (a.k.a. The Pontifical and The Catholic University here in Asia). While my cousins attended secondary school at the Holy Rosary College. These are Dominican educational institutions.
As a Physical Therapist, aunt Rory served at the hospital within their community. But as a good and suffering mother that she was, she went abroad to help her husband augment the family income to be able to put their daughters to college. Bearing the pain of being away from her family, her efforts were rewarded by the diligence of their daughters. Soon the eldest became a lawyer and the other finished her degree in education and went on to graduate school to finish her masteral degree.
Aunt Rory suffered from the stroke that caused hemorrhage in her brain that took her in a state of coma. She was admitted to the University of Sto. Tomas University Hospital. As if reunited to her alma mater, The U.S.T., this year coincides with the quadric-centennial (400th) year of the university which was established in 1611. It would have been significant for her to be here if she were conscious. I later realized that nothing can be too trivial a matter at the throes of death. We may find ourselves looking for relevance from the simplest things to make sense of the incomprehensible.
Our family and friends had prayed for aunt Rory in her infirmary. Since only two at a time are allowed to stay at the ICU-CCU during visiting hours, the sympathetic staff let three of us stay and pray the Rosary. Yet we are hopeful of her miraculous recovery, we are resigned to God’s will. We prayed, “Lord, let it be done according to Your will.”
Aunt Rory was finally given the Last Sacrament. We by her deathbed had prayed and commended her soul to God until she breathed her last at about 5:00 pm, the same hour of her husband’s death. It is a bitter-sweet thought that she went ahead not so long after uncle Ledo, her husband, had died. It was only a year since the passing of her husband. It is as if she can’t stand being a widow that so soon she joined him. They were an odd couple. Certainly not perfect. Yet love and faithfulness endured stronger than the imperfections. Hence, it seems that even death can only separate them for so long.
Our family extends the gratitude to those who prayed, offered comfort and extended whatever assistance to us from my aunt’s infirmary to her internment. Special thanks to the priests who had prayed for and with us, gave the sacrament to my aunt and said the Holy Mass throughout the duration of the wake. They are:
Fr. Rogelio Alarcon, O.P.
Fr. Jay Miranda, O.P.
Fr. Raymund Jose, O.P.
Fr. Ferdie Bautista, O.P.
Fr. Clarke Marquez, O.P.
Fr. Jojo Dagohoy, O.P.
I conclude this post with the most essential message from God. This we have to remember so that we may neither fear death nor suffer too much from grief. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life that whoever believes in Me shall live though he died. And have eternal life.” ( John 11:25-26)
