Kind Strangers

(First published in the Phil. Daily Inquirer, Youngblood Column, Jan. 8, 2002.)

ONE of the stories mother often read to me when i was young was LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD. And everytime she finished reading, she would remnd me: "Strangers cannot be trusted. So don’t talk to them. Look what happened to Little Red Riding Hood."

Remembering Little Red Riding Hood and believing my mother’s warning, I became aloof to strangers. However, this attitude changed five days after I got married on Dec. 18, 1999.

For our return trip to Iloilo City after spending our honeymoon in Bohol, my husband and I boarded the M/S South Korea. Six hours after it left Cebu City, the ship ran aground off Bantayan Island in Cebu and quickly sank in the morning of Dec. 23.

This tragedy introduced into my life several strangers. I don’t even know the names of some of them, but I will always remember all their faces and their good deeds for the rest of my life. They are:

THe CREW members of the M/V Edago who rescued us from the stormy sea where we had been floating for 8 hours. They saw us being tossed by gigantic (as big as houses, I swear!) waves, helped us aboard their ship and fed us with what was left of their provisions: lugaw and a few packs of noodles cooked in a big casserole filled with water so that hundreds of hungry mouths fished out of the sea could eat. They brought us safely to Salazar Shipping Institute (a school ship) in Sta. Fe, Cebu.

The OWNERS and STAFF of Salazar Shipping Institute who took us in and fed us of our first real meal for the day consisting of rice, dilis, sardines, bread, and black coffee (even without sugar, the coffee tasted heavenly!)

The FOLKS of Sta. Fe who at the unholy hour of 2 AM braved the rough waters and the chilling wind to ferry me and other injured survivors to the Bantayan Island District Hospital.

The DOCTORS and NURSES at the said hospital who attended to my fractured right ankle and to my husband’s bruises which we sustained from jumping off the ship. And the social workers who gave us slippers, underwear, toothbrushes, and toothpaste.

THe handsome PILOT of the plane that airlifted us to Cebu City and who gave me a pack of BlueSkies soda crackers with these kind words,"Eto na lang ang natira o. Pasensyahan mo na lang."

The alert and on-the-ball SOLDIERS of Mactan Air Base in Cebu City who facilitated our transfer to Chong Hua Hospital

MR. GEORGE TIO, the administrator of Chong Hua Hospital, who let my husband make long distance calls for free to our families in Iloilo City. DR. EDDIE YAP and his competent team of doctors who spent Christmas Day operating on my fractured ankle; the cheerful nurses (yeah, I remember two of them dancing the swing in the Recovery Room); and the staff who treated me with gentle care and patience making my four days of confinement comfortable.

JESSIE LIM, the operations manager of Coca-Cola Bottlers Phils. Inc., Cebu Plant, who after being contacted by my husband’s Manila-based uncle (Herni Defante), with his wife searched and looked for us at the Emergency Room of Chong Hua Hospital and brought us fresh lumpia and apples, which my husband and I had for our noche buena. Also, they bought us some clothes and gave us money for my hospital needs.

NENA SOGOCIO, a DSWD social worker who paid us constant visits and even gave us P100.

MANANG VIRGIE, a fellow survivor of the sea tragedy, who offered us a place to stay in Cebu City.

THEY were all strangers to me, and I to them, but they treated us with kindness. These acts of kindness indeed saved my husband’s life and mine, and the short encounter we had with them proved that strangers can also be trusted.

Now I have recovered from the trauma, my ankle has healed, and I’m a mother to a bubbly girl. Tonight, before we retire to bed, I will be telling her the story of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD…and of my own experience with those kind strangers, of course….