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Haiyan Stories: Leyte (Angeline Maraya)

by Paula Nierras

“Dito alam mong may kumakalinga sa’yo. Nakakatulong kasi lahat kami nawalan ng mahal sa buhay. Nung nag-Bayani Challenge, masaya yung maraming tao - nagsasaya, kumakanta. Nalilibang kami, nakakalimot kahit papano.” (You feel cared for in this village. It helps because everyone here has lost someone. During Bayani Challange, it was nice to have so many people with us. Somehow, they helped us forget and lifted our spirits.)

Nanay Angelina Maraya is one of the GK residents in  Brgy. Pago, Tanauan. Like many other nanays in the village, she lost her husband to the sea when a barrage of waves engulfed the area where her home once stood. While she and her children evacuated to safer ground, her husband stayed to make sure that none of their belongings get lost. But as it turned out, everything, including him, would be swept away.

Like Nanay Angelina, Yolanda left everyone pining for someone – a husband, a child, a friend, a relative. But knowing that there are people who care give survivors the encouragement to look beyond their grief. Here, “Walang Iwanan” paves way for their healing.  Someone’s presence – a hug, a chat, a simple “kumusta po kayo?” (how are you?), have the power to make things lighter for them. And so a year after Yolanda, we honor the dead by remembering the living.

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