Robert Saul E. Cortez and me.

Sorry for the poor photo quality.

So this picture was taken sometime ago. I think this was the last time we’ve seen each other.

Before Christmas, my friends and I decided to have a reunion and Robert confirmed, but then he didn’t come.

Then we heard he would spend the rest of the Holidays in Singapore, so we reckoned that probably that was one reason he wasn’t able to come out to our party. We indeed haven’t seen him for sometime and thought it would be nice to see him for once.

Then last night, January 5, 2010, I received a really grave news that Robert was critical in the hospital. He was ran over by a vehicle on his way home and wasn’t brought to the hospital until three hours later.

Now these friends of mine had some history of making jokes like this just to make us all come out for a gathering. At first, I didn’t believe it. But then, we went to the hospital and although we weren’t allowed inside anymore, we received information about his condition. ROBERT WAS DYING.

The shock still lingered all through the night until the time we all gathered in my friend’s house to pray for him. We tried hard to think that it wasn’t real. That it wasn’t happening.

Then this morning, my friends and I went to the hospital again because his sister said that it might be our last chance to say goodbye to him. They already signed a DNR. When we got there, they told us that Robert’s blood pressure dropped to zero and he was only supporting on Dopamine and his respirator. His family was just waiting for the dopamine drip to finish, and they will just accept whatever happens next.

As I entered the ICU, I saw his mom by his side and his younger sister. I tried not to cry, but as soon as I touched Robert’s hand, I couldn’t control my tears and I just let it flow. His mom started sobbing, too and I thought about what a loss Robert will be to his family and to his friends as well. I just held him there, and looked at him, unable to register into my mind that this person lying in bed, dying was the same person who made us laugh with his very simple moves.

His sister let me touch his feet. I felt a shiver as I held them. They were cold. He was indeed going to pass away soon enough, but I still made an effort to offer a prayer not anymore for his recovery, but for guidance and grace especially to the family he was going to leave behind.

Robert is 24. He still has a lot of things that he would be capable of doing and just because of some reckless bastard who didn’t even have the heart to call 911 even anonymously. Had Robert been brought to the hospital as soon as he was hit, he might have lived.

He is still in the ICU at this moment, waiting for the last Dopamine drop. I hate to admit it, but we had to accept that probably our next gathering would be on his wake. :(