1st Christmas without him

As the song says, Christmas won’t be the same this year for Laurice Guillen and Pia Arroyo-Magalona. It’s their first Christmas without him — Johnny Delgado in the case of Laurice and Francis Magalona in the case of Pia. Both men succumbed to cancer: Johnny to lymphona last month and Francis to leukemia last March.

“Just the same,” said Laurice, turning misty-eyed, “we will have our traditional noche buena, except that there will be an empty seat reserved for Johnny. This time, it will be just the three of us, our daughters Ana and Ina and myself. But we are sure that Johnny will be with us.”

For several years, the closely-knit family would spend Christmas exclusively among the four of them — “Kaming apat lang talaga,” Laurice stressed. “Since our conversion several years ago, ang mga Christmas namin ay hindi na ‘yung maingay; sinasalubong namin ang birth of Christ with prayer. We would hear midnight Mass and go straight home and pray, followed by ‘sharing’. Then, we would partake of the noche buena and open the gifts. We would send each other big Christmas cards because we usually wrote long letters to each other.”

Laurice wished that this Chistmas would be the same as the previous ones, but then...

“We are hoping na magparamdam man lang si Johnny during the noche buena. Since he left, he has never made paramdam sa akin, but he did to Ana who would feel a gentle touch on her head. Ana knows that it’s her dad.”

Even if Laurice and her daughters knew that Johnny was terminally ill, they never expected him to be gone so soon.

“He was prepared to die but he wasn’t ready to say goodbye. His illness changed us radically. Our consolation is that we were given enough time to serve him, almost three years when he was going in and coming out of the hospital. We kept him company and spent quality time together. During his last moments, we never left him; we were by his side. The three of us covered him while we were praying the rosary. We held back tears because Johnny didn’t want to see us cry,” adding with a sigh, “you know, when you have tried your best to find the best possible treatment for him, it’s easier to let him go. Ibig sabihin, it’s already the will of God, so okey na rin.”

Johnny had just completed the eighth chemo session in December last year in time to enjoy Christmas with his family.

“He was upbeat,” said Laurice.

Laurice would miss, among other things, Johnny’s being perhaps the “harshest” critic of her films, including the latest, Star Cinema’s I Love You, Goodbye (starring Gabby Concepcion, Derek Ramsay, Angelica Panganiban and Kim Chiu) which is an entry in the 2009 Metro Filmfest.

“I made sure that Johnny would like this movie. he kept on telling me not to let his illness delay the shooting of the movie. We were into the last shooting days when he asked Ana to call me home. I knew it was the time. I rushed home. I didn’t want him to go without me beside him.”

A day after the funeral, Laurice was back on the set.

“I didn’t have time to sulk,” said Laurice. “Mabuti naman mayroon kaagad ako ginagawa. I know Johnny would have wanted it that way.” (See related story on Page E-2)

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For Pia and her nine children, plus two grandchildren, Christmas this year will be different from those in the past.

“We will be missing him a lot,” said Pia. “We will try to spend Christmas the usual way, making believe that Francis will be with us. Yes, I know that he will be with us.”

The usual way means having Christmas Eve dinner at home and spending the next day with Francis’ relatives (meaning the families of Francis’ four siblings who are here; the rest are residing abroad).

“That’s our tradition and we won’t break it. We hear the midnight Mass and share the noche buena. After opening the gifts, we sit around and exchange stories. Francis would usually give all of us the most number of gifts. Mahilig kasi magregalo ‘yon, eh.”

Like Laurice, Pia didn’t expect Christmas last year to be Francis’ last even if he spent, as Pia said, “40 days and 40 nights” at the ICU of the Medical City (in Pasig City) after yet another round of chemos.

“He was able to go home on Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas as if nothing was wrong with him. At 8 o’clock, we heard Mass and did what we always did year after year. Francis was an avid photographer and during our last Christmas together, he took as many pictures as he could. Para bang he wanted to record every moment of that Christmas.”

The next several weeks was full of hope for Pia and her children.

“His sister Pye (Francis’ aunt) was ready to be a donor after DNA tests confirmed that she and Francis were ‘compatible’. The doctors waited for him to go into a complete remission before doing the procedure. But Francis never lived long enough.”

Like Laurice, Pia was composed in public; she never broke down before the cameras, especially, as Laurice did, not in front of Francis.

“You know what I want to do?” asked Pia. “I want to go back to the ICU where Francis spent his last days. I want to feel the pain that he went through. That way, I think I could come to terms with the reality of losing him. It will be painful, I know, reliving those painful moments, but that would help me meet the tragedy head-on.”

And what does she miss most about Francis?

“Everything about him. He was my best companion. I would miss our long conversations. And his hands. Francis kasi was the touching type of person. I miss his soothing touch.”

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BREAKING NEWS: Sharon Cuneta is also spending her first Christmas without her Yaya Luring who died of cardiac arrest Saturday night during a Christmas party. She was 83. A few years ago, Yaya Luring suffered a stroke.

Funfare got the following text message yesterday afternoon from Sharon (who said she doesn’t know how life would be without her loyal yaya):

My beloved Yaya Luring left me last night after 40 years, at 83 years old. She will be at the Santuario de San Antonio, McKinley Road, Forbes Park, Makati City, starting tonight. She will be buried on Dec. 23.

Yaya Luring was a “celebrity” in her own right, having “starred” with Sharon in two commercials, for Kodak and Lucky Me. She was a well-loved, familiar figure in showbiz circles, quietly keeping herself in the sidelines as she watched over Sharon in showbiz functions (and in her shoots).

Sharon was only a baby when Yaya Luring started serving her. She’s survived by her children who live in Pangasinan.

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