More than a lunch date with the Pope

TAGBILARAN CITY—Five Boholanos have been blessed with a rare opportunity to have lunch with Pope Francis on Saturday in Palo town, Leyte province, but can they share their stories with him, too?

BARACE

Saturnino Barace Jr., 19, lost four members of his family members when their house was swallowed by a sinkhole that appeared after the 7.2 magnitude quake that rocked Bohol in October 2013.

GENTALLAN

Veneranda Gentallan, 38, who has two children, suffered massive head injuries but miraculously recovered though doctors had almost given up on her.

BONGAY

Shirley Bongay, 28, and Salome Israel, 24, were buried in the rubble until they were rescued, but each of them lost a limb. A third woman, Niza Flores, 53, lost her 12-year-old son.

But more than a year after their ordeal, the five will be leaving for Palo in time for the luncheon with the Pontiff on Jan. 17 with 25 survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) at the Archbishop’s Residence. They could not believe that they were selected among the thousands of families who were affected by the quake that killed 201 people and displaced more than 95,000 families on Oct. 15, 2013.

“I thought I was not worthy to go and have lunch with the Pope because I am poor. What would I wear?” Gentallan, of Barangay (village) San Roque in Maribojoc town, told the Inquirer in the vernacular. “I was wrong in my belief. The Pope loves us who are poor.”

Gentallan was given a new lease of life following her recovery from multiple bone fractures in the body, a crack on her skull, and a broken jaw, She was brought to the hospital in Cebu City, where she was confined for a month.

The wall of her house collapsed and fell on her as she shielded her 5-year-old daughter Marian Ferl and 18-year-old son Mark Darwin with her body. Her husband Eutiquio brought her to Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital in Tagbilaran City but after six days, the doctors advised him to bring his wife to Cebu.

“They (physicians) thought I could no longer live with my condition,” Gentallan said. She was confined at the government-owned Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

“Every single day, I prayed. In my mind, I wanted to live. I even told Him that if I got better, I would serve Him in any way I could,” she said.

Her prayers were answered. A day after she arrived at the hospital, she was able to sit on the bed unassisted.

“The nurses and the doctors were all amazed. But they had to let me stay in order to be sure. It was, for me, a miracle,” Gentallan said.

Prayers also saved Bongay, a pharmacist, who lost her right arm after she was pinned down for eight hours underneath the rubble of her house in Barangay Lintuan, Loon town.

“I really thought it was my end. If it weren’t for the prayers, I would have been dead by now,” she said.

The woman was pulled out by rescuers and brought to Congressman Natalio P. Castillo Sr. Memorial Hospital in Loon, where doctors amputated her severely injured right arm, according to her 71-year-old mother Severa.

At first, losing an arm made Bongay feel incomplete but she managed to get through by keeping herself busy with work at a local pharmacy. “Slowly, I have accepted what happened to me,” she said.

Barace, of Barangay Obujan in Antequera town, said the tragedy led him to his priestly calling. He entered the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Tagbilaran in June last year because, he said, wanted to spend the rest of his life with God who saved him.

He lost his father Saturnino, mother Emiliana, sister Elizabeth, and his 5-year-old niece Shame Jyle after their house was swallowed by a sinkhole that appeared after the earthquake.

Barace said he was buried neck-deep of limestone and thought he was going to die. Eight hours later, his neighbors pulled him out.

Israel said she survived the quake because “God has a plan for me.” She lost her right arm and was injured in the pelvis when the wall of her house in Barangay Pooc Oriental, Tubigon town, fell on her. She spent one month at the hospital.

“He (God) taught me that there is still a lot to be thankful for despite losing my right arm,” she said.

FLORES

Flores, of Barangay Poblacion in Sagbayan town, still mourns the loss of her youngest son, Geevie, 12. The boy, who was inside an Internet cafe when the temblor struck, died along with four others.

“We don’t own our lives. I am thankful that God allowed me to borrow my son for 12 years,” she said.

Now that they have been given a chance to meet the Pontiff, is there something they want to ask from him?

Barace said he would ask the Pope to pray for him and his relatives so they would be healed after what they went through. He plans to hug the Pope during their meeting.

He said he would wear casual clothes because the Pope was known for his simplicity. He said meeting the Pope would encourage him to do better and become a priest.

Gentallan said she would thank Francis for taking time to eat lunch with them, while Israel would tell him what happened to her and how she managed to survive.

ISRAEL. Carmel Loise Matus/INQUIRER VISAYAS

Israel had written a 41-page letter containing her hopes and prayers for her family, which she plans to give to the Pope. In her Sunday best, she would take many photos with the Pope for posting on her Facebook account.

Flores, who has yet to find a Filipiniana dress to wear, said she would ask Francis pray for her son’s soul and for them to be spared from calamities. She considers the papal encounter a gift of healing for a mother who lost a son.