THE COMEBACK KID

Those of you who still remember the article “The Pathetic Plight of Jonel Lustrado may find this sequel worth your leisure hour while those who have not yet done so are simply advised to scroll down and read it to understand what the phrase “comeback kid” is all about.

Last Saturday, March 18, the lion tamer and her pet had two female visitors at their den one of whom was already familiar named Dading, while the other, the aging lion could not remember. Amusingly, the lion tamer remarked that she is the mother of Isabel Bernadas, a teenage harelip patient whom we have helped some two years ago, while the other was the mother of Jonel.

So let the aging lion now rewind the hands of time as far as Jonel is concerned.

Of course the lion knows Jonel fully well. He is that young lad whom they brought to Cebu City at Chung Hua Hospital last September 29 to undergo “Magnetic Reasonance Imaging”, or MRI, a modern medical technique that effectively determines the patient’s ailment but is more expensive than the traditional x-rays that old timers are familiar with. On the next day, September 30, which was his 26th birthday we returned to Bohol with mixed feelings as the prospects of Jonel’s recovery was as clear as mud.

The lion recalls that he considered Jonel’s case as more or less already closed since the good doctor at Cebu City later advised the inadvisability of conducting an operation considering his worsened condition; the most pronounced of which was that he was already no different physically from a crab who has just shed his old shell and with his new shell still pliant, his strength is all but gone which in local parlance is called “luno!” Worse, the doctor also diagnosed his ailment as tuberculosis of the bone and that the chances of recovery were very slim, indeed!

The doctor’s words notwithstanding, the lion tamer was undaunted. If medical science is no longer of help (Doc Billy emailed saying there is a possibility it can be remedied in the metropolis but the cost would be gargantuan), then surely, the power of prayers still can, she said. And at the town’s parish newly-built “Adoration Room” that she frequents she added the name Jonel on the long list of names she usually ask the Lord for help. The mystic powers of prayer she added to the medicines that Bro. Jack Galbreath purchased at Cebu City and when it was fully consumed, she badgered the town’s medical center to give Jonel’s mother the needed medical tablets, the prescription slip of which she asked from Dr. Jesus Vicuna, Jr. at Cebu City later.

.And so back to where we started this story on March 18.

The mother of Jonel was in high spirits when she was telling her story. All these six months, she said that all that was in his son’s mind was to bounce back to normal, with the mother always around to lend a helping hand. Inside the house, she installed a bamboo railing and strung sturdy ropes which Jonel could grasp to exercise his hands and move himself around; and as he progressed, similar contraptions were also attached out of the house to enable Jonel to get fresh air outside. To the consternation of Jonel’s grandmother berating her daughter for giving too much attention to Jonel, and to which the mother simply dismissed the admonition by shrugging her shoulders. Which could easily remind the DeMolay readers of the “Flower Talk” that they have memorized so well. “You can go down to the depths, but your mother . . . .” Oh, well!

And he also did not forget the aging lion’s parting words on that epic September 30, during his birthday that communing with the Lord at the stroke of midnight is usually very effective for as the latter said, “there is no static nor unusual interruptions when you commune with God during that time for almost nobody else is praying!”

But it was not all physical conditioning that Jonel and his mother turned their energies into. Jonel’s time also glued his ears to the radio listening to religious songs, music and charismatic masses that made him commune with God on his own. One time on her visit, the mother asked the aging lion whether making offerings to the spirits at the brook where he met an accident some two years back will do Jonel any good and receive a reply in the affirmative. And when the lion tamer gave a quizzical eye because of the aging lion’s nodded as his reply, he simply later said that “Magic”, not the Salamanca type one usually sees on TV, but the magic that was clearly elucidated by Sir James Frazer in his book The Golden Bough do has that awesome powers of putting ailing persons back to recovery.

Miscellaneous help to Jonel came. In addition to prayers and medicines, donations were not also found wanting. Part of the US$ 80 that WB Dave of the American Samoa sent was generously spent for transportation and incidental costs to the mother whenever she makes a visit; their family was also included in the bags recipients of groceries for the noche buena of the four fisher families that WB Tony funded during the Christmas holidays.

More importantly, Jonel’s mother said he can now walk without a cane and even wished he could bathe himself at the beach. Wherefore the aging lion replied it is not at all a problem. All that was needed was to take Jonel down from the boondocks and presto, he can bathe on the beach at the lion’s backyard, with the lion preparing the food as cook, courtesy of the man of the house.

And so on March 25 they arrived with Jonel, his brother in law at the wheels and the two aging ladies at the back of the motorcycle. There they bathed at the beach and during lunch where they partook of a half-kilo liver mixed with mushroom and cabbage, and broiled “tulingan” that the aging lion himself cooked, they talked energetically about his physical progress which in modern parlance can be compared to a cell phone with two bars blinking while being charged, which means that while he has not yet fully regained his health, he is now on the road to recovery. He said he has not yet seen his family, his live in partner and his new-born son. He of course wish he could physically be with them to the reluctance of both his mother and the lion tamer fearing that a third child might ensue. To which the aging lion empathically remarked: “Of course that can be avoided, the efficient use of condom or some other contraceptives can easily avert that dreaded possibility!!”

After they left for home that afternoon, additional help for Jonel’s welfare followed. Upon being informed on the phone, the lion tamer’s cousin volunteered to purchase multi-vitamins for Jonel’s medical maintenance to further improve his health. For Jonel’s part which he said earlier, joining a group at their baranggay’s parish to serve during mass is a wish that he wants fulfilled to put him right on track.

Which augurs well for him, his live-in partner Wilma, his daughter and his new-born son who were left behind last September in Cebu City.

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THE PATHETIC PLIGHT OF JONEL LUSTRADO

(Note: whole text is deleted. Readers interested to read the article are advised to open the previous posting as shown somewhere in the caption titled Faith, Hope. . . .etc.)