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Alberto Wallit, a 38-year old clerk of the Department of Agrarian Reform, was unsure of his full attention in last Friday’s assessment workshop in Caba, La Union for employees of his agency.
Same day, Wilma, his 30-year old wife, was on her way to her twice-a-week dialysis for kidney failure at the Benguet Renal Center . She was also unsure whether the support check of P15,000 from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office had arrived and had actually been used up by her. Life for the young couple - if you can call it that - has been like being on a treadmill that just keeps on speeding faster and faster everyday. They have to keep pace – emotionally and financially. Wilma can now only survive by maintaining the regular, four-hour blood-cleansing sessions since last January, when doctors said her kidneys had failed. With a P75,000 loan from the DAR cooperative long spent, Wilma now and then would skip a dialysis session. It’s a medically dangerous way of coping that many others situated like her are resorting to, it being the only choice until support arrives. The couple are missing on the joy of parenthood. Their two boys – Cyrill, 7; and Winkle, 6 – are often left to the care of their maternal grandmother in their home in Salat, Central Kapangan Benguet. "We try to be with the kids whenever we can as they need us, but it’s becoming a luxury to provide them that right," Alberto admitted last Wednesday. He appeared to say sorry for two errors in last Sunday’s news item on his appeal to be connected to Samaritans out there. He admitted it was easy to commit those mistakes, given the confusion his family is in. "My correct cellphone number, should some readers respond to our appeal, is 09204866423," he rectified. "My wife’s dialyis sessions at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center have been transferred to the Benguet Renal Center within the Benguet General Hospital Compound. The transfer was due to an emergency and we were in Benguet that time." Wilma’s dialysis is on the Tuesday and Friday schedule, 11 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at P2,600 per session. Donors can ring up the center at 074-422-7290. They can deposit their support at the Renal Center at the ground floor of the provincial health office at the back of the Benguet Provincial Hospital in La Trinidad, Benguet. – Ramon Dacawi. |
