By Joel B. Belinan
During the recent holidays, I almost lost count of the number of those whom I know who had passed away including distant relatives, kakailians, and even some direct family members of a close friend. In fact my topic here last week was the death of an Autonomy advocate stalwart in the person of Mr. Fernando Bahatan Jr. Unfortunately life is indeed unpredictable as this week, the news turned to worse when we were informed that my nephew, the first son of our late eldest brother also left for the afterlife. The sad thing is he was quite young being barely 44 years old. Marvin P. Belinan Jr. whom we also call Baladbad in the family was born on January 30, 1978, and returned to his creator on January 23 (last week) or seven days before his 44th birthday. He is survived by his wife and two young kids.
As I write this piece before traveling to Tabuk City where the family’s residence is, I recollect that I last met him in December 2019 during the wedding of a relative in Tabuk City. As history unfolded, in the middle of March the following year the global pandemic struck, and my otherwise almost every month travel to other places including Tabuk was completely stopped. While restrictions were eased during the election period until now, the work that required us to travel had been closed due to the pandemic and hence for more than three years I never met my nephew again.
Baladbad, being our very first nephew in the family, was doted on by everyone in our family then. I hasten to add that we were living in Tabuk during the 70s until the mid-80s when our mother and the rest of the family decided to move to Baguio and Benguet. Our eldest brother and his family were left in Tabuk. Such distance made my contact with Baladbad and the rest of his siblings very seldom.
In 1993, my eldest brother aged 43 at that time succumbed to heart attack leaving his big family of 11 young children and his wife. I was based in Singapore during those years and was not able to come home as I got the telex about it very late. Telex was the fastest communication during those years. Coming home for good in late 1995, that was the only time I saw again Baladbad and his siblings. Of course, he had grown to be a huge young man at that time and not the chubby but cute toddler that we left in 1985.
With my involvement in ZigZag Weekly that allowed my constant traveling, I witnessed the maturing years of my nephews and nieces including when they started families of their own. However the curse of cardio-vascular disease in our family again struck and Baladbad was its latest victim making his life just a year longer than his father and namesake, my late eldest brother Marvin. I know it’s a bit sentimental but I know Baladbad will continue to look after his wife and his two young kids even if he would be up there. Do RIP my nephew as you join your dad, your lolos, lolas aunts, and uncles who had gone ahead to the heavenly realm.
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