Survivor’s tale: Haunted by ‘Ondoy’

More than two years after  Tropical Storm “Ondoy” struck, resulting in the loss of hundreds of lives and the massive destruction of property, Leonarda Tacuyon, 59, still has vivid memories of how she lost her family in an instant while perched on the roof of their house in Bagong Silangan, Quezon City, as the rains poured.

Clinging to a sturdy banana plant, Tacuyon waited out the storm and emerged the only survivor in her family.

Visiting the tombs of her sons, in-laws and grandchildren placed side by side in a “condominium”-type niche at Quezon City’s Bagbag public cemetery on Tuesday, Tacuyon found irony in the situation.

“At least they are now above the ground, so the floods can never reach them,” she said, half in jest and half in tears. “My problem now is how to light the candle and put the flowers I brought with me because it’s too high,”

Since there was no ladder for her to reach the top, Tacuyon had to content herself with paying someone to scale the niche and place her offerings.

Except for Tacuyon, no visitors were seen at the tombs of the other typhoon victims buried in that portion of the cemetery.

Three other families, also victims of Ondoy, are buried beside the Tacuyons.

According to Ramon Matabang, administrator of the Quezon City public cemetery in Novaliches, the local government is paying for the maintenance of the  tombs.

A 30-hectare cemetery, Bagbag also holds the mass grave of the unidentified victims of the Payatas landfill tragedy in 2000.

Tacuyon, who now works as a utility woman of the barangay, said that she has tried to deal with her grief by moving  on.

“I can only pray for them, wherever they are,” she said wiping her tears.

But at the tomb of Muelmar Magallanes, the 18-year-old construction worker who saved 30 persons at the height of the storm only to lose his own life, there were no flowers and candles to show he is   remembered, Tacuyon said.

“But maybe tomorrow his family will visit,” Tacuyon said.

“People still live in Barangay Silangan, she added. “Except for stories about ghosts roaming around, no one is really scared.”