COURAGEOUS GUIA

Not every one of us has been given the privilege of good health. Sometimes, it takes a strong person to move on with his /her life even though he/she already knows that he/she will die any moment from now.

This is the story of my best friend named Guia.

I met her in high school and we have been very close since then. She is very easy to get with, very beautiful and sexy, very loving and sweet. She is frank yet you will know that what speaks is the truth. She doesn’t like plastic people. I guess that is why we have been this close.

We have lost contact for over a year when we reached college. I took a different course while she studied another.

One day, a friend of us told me that her mother died of lupus a day after her husband died of heart attack. The sad thing about it is that she needs to decide which funeral she can attend to since it is not allowed in here to attend to two funerals at one time.

Tears came running down my face, as I heard the news. I felt very sad for her. I can’t imagine what she’s feeling at that moment of loss.

My high school friends and I decided to pay her a visit to her husband's funeral. I saw her sitting on the edge looking at her husband’s coffin. It seems that her tears have dried up and her eyes are swollen because of crying. When she saw us, she started crying again very hard. She couldn’t even speak no matter how hard she tried.

After the funeral, I decided to never leave her side. She told me everything that she’s been through. Only then that I realized that she is carrying a heavy load more than that loss. She told me that she is diagnosed with lupus. According to medical news today (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/lupus), "lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks normal, healthy tissue. This results in symptoms such as inflammation, swelling, and damage to joints, skin, kidneys, blood, the heart, and lungs".

She has been suffering those symptoms for over 8 years now. In fact, she doesn’t look like my high school friend anymore. Tiredness is painted all over her face. I can see that she had struggled too much. There are also patches on her skin.

She told me that there was even a moment in time when she felt like giving up and questioning God’s plan for her. I am at lost for words every time she tells me that the pain is unbearable. I really want to help her but I can’t. All I can do is go with her every time she has her regular check-ups and pray for her health.

I know that death is inevitable but the thought of it scares me. She told me that too. She said that she’s not ready yet because her son is still very young but she’s willing to accept whatever God’s plan has restored for her.

But despite all that, she can still manage to smile and joke about her disease. It is the reason why I admired her so much. Her courage has been an inspiration to me.

I always pray that she’ll fully recover from the illness and I will be able to see the smile (with nothing to worry about) from her pretty face.

Photos are mine