ON MAY 9 at 4:32am, I received the following text message:

“Good morning, Ms. Tara. This is Daisy, Bassinette’s cousin. Please visit her anytime today because she’s always calling your name in the middle of the night and early in the morning. That’s why I’m texting you. She can’t text you anymore. She’s very tired. She’s already hallucinating and disoriented. Sorry for disturbing you, Tara.”

I visited her at St. Paul’s Hospital that day after work. She was sleeping soundly when I arrived. It must have been the side effect of morphine, which was supposed to obliterate her pain. It took about another 15 minutes for her to wake up. Knowing she regained consciousness, I stood by her bedside. Daisy then asked her if she still recognized me. She nodded and uttered my name, although it was more of a whisper. I held her hand and she kissed it. And for a brief moment, she flashed a wide smile and her eyes glowed.

For the next few minutes, she rambled on and on. I had a hard time understanding what she was trying to say. The only thing I understood was when she asked me to bring her high-heeled shoes and her flashy gown. “We are going to a party. You’re going to push my wheelchair,” she said. I suppose she meant she was coming with me to the opening of the photo exhibit of Dr. Malbar Ferrer, who, incidentally, was one of her doctors.

Jeehan Fernandez, Albert Mamora, and I visited her the following day. She was more delusional. At one point, she even asked Jeehan to open the door because she thought somebody was standing outside and knocking.

By May 13, Daisy informed that Bassinette is hooked up to an oxygen tank as she has trouble breathing. I immediately rushed to the hospital after lunch and our publisher Lemuel Fernandez also came an hour later. Her breathing was indeed shallow and she looked very frail.

I came back that night after Daisy told me that Bassinette was injected with a drug that could calm her down and put her at ease. During the next few hours, her blood pressure kept on dropping. When I left past midnight of May 14, she was semi-conscious and even reminded me to follow up on her SSS papers.

Sometime past 3am of May 14, I received the dreaded message from Daisy: “she’s now with the Lord.” Right at that moment, which was a few hours before the crack of dawn, my heart sank. She’s gone. It’s real. I wished, or more fittingly, hoped that she did not have to surrender on life itself. Then again, I should be happy for her. After all, she wanted to be at peace – to be liberated from the excruciating pain. More so, she was ready for the afterlife, where she could join her mother and the Almighty.

I cannot say I have known Bassinette for a long time. I only knew her when she moved back to her native Iloilo and began writing a column for The Daily Guardian in 2003. If not at the paper’s old office in La Paz, I would usually bump into her at the countless press conferences, festivals, art exhibits, or concerts. Notwithstanding her rather eccentric persona, she was very compassionate who always went out of her way to help others.

In the span of a year when Bassinette had her bout with cervical cancer, she unbelievably maintained a strong fighting spirit. Most of the time, it seemed like she was not stricken with a terminal illness as she was in her usual jovial mood – always quick in sharing her past adventures or intellectual prowess. More significantly, albeit ironically, she was the one who consoled friends and relatives. Suffice to say, not only did she know her fate, she accepted it and relied on faith more than reason.

What made Mary Bassinette Duran Noderama quintessential was her unequivocal zest for life. That will be her legacy, I suppose.

***

At 5:30pm today, there will be a memorial service for Bassinette at the Aglipay Church in La Paz, Iloilo City. She will be cremated tomorrow in Bacolod City.

One Response to “Bassinette’s zest for life”

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  My Blog » Blog Archive » Bassinette’s zest for life
  September 7th, 2008 18:24

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