Mathoms, etc.

Since the fire at our house in the Philippines, I've had this urge to just throw all non-essentials out. I was spring cleaning today and came upon some old correspondence. Some of them came from people I don't even remember. I found a few letters from my friend Tere. She was a year behind us in school. can't remember if she was one of my interns at PGH, but she ended up working there with me afer she graduated.

Anyway, the letters were written when I first moved to the States and she was still working in Manila. Lots of laughs while I was reading them. It brought back lots of fond memories from when we worked together. She was a great cook and would bring me lunch some days. Usually we'd go out to eat or order food from the medical school cafeteria with our other colleagues. We went to movies after work, even work out at the PT gym. She was one of those typical Filipina girlfriends who'd hold your hand or walk arm in arm with you, while I inwardly cringed at such a display. She laughed heartily. She took care of my clearance from PGH after I left. I was so impressed with her because she lived with her sister in an apartment, no maid, did all the chores. She was the first independent woman I knew back in those days.

Too bad she is gone. We just sorta fell out of touch. She was roommates with one of my college friends and lots of drama went on. Drama that I shouldn't have let myself get involved in. For some reason, I used to get such flak by being friends with people that my other pals didn't approve of. Now, I don't even know where some of those friends are. None of those issues and conflicts mattered, probably even then but we were all too young and stupid to know.

Tere died in a head on collision, coming home from her boyfriend's house in the middle of the night. She fell asleep. Even her last relationship was a controversial one. I'm glad that she was at least in a happy one before she passed. One of my biggest regrets is that I didn't go to her wake or funeral. Simply because I lived 4-5 hours away at the time.

The dedication on the back of this photo says: "Thank you for taking part in my life. The times we've shared will always be cherished in my heart. I hope to see you again."

I hope so, too.