‘Thank you’ message of COVID-19 patient’s kids move Lapulapu crisis responders to tears
Posted at Jun 21 2020 11:23 AM | Updated as of Jun 21 2020 03:19 PM
Three children of a woman in Lapulapu City in Cebu province who tested positive for the novel coronavirus moved local officials to tears after writing them letters of gratitude and encouragement on Saturday.
“I was really surprised by the cards. Nakahilak ko (I cried)… because I underestimated them. I thought they are just ordinary kids. But I was wrong. They are really special (and) intelligent,” Nagiel Bañacia, 50, head of the city’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, told ABS-CBN News on Sunday.
Bañacia and his team took care of the three siblings, aged 14, 11 and 8, after their 38-year-old mother, who was found positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) last June 4, had to be isolated.
The family, who lives in Barangay Pusok, had no relatives in the area and nobody among the neighbors wanted to temporarily take care of the kids due to stigma, Bañacia said.
“Everybody was afraid to get close to their house, even in their doorstep,” he said.
With the eldest child accepting the responsibility of looking after her siblings, Bañacia said he instructed the local watchmen (tanods), cops and neighbors to provide support, especially if they have emergency needs.
“Week after the mother was sent to isolation, we got a sad news. The 11-year-old met an accident. She broke her clavicle bone. Nagduwa sila sa iyang igsoon, ug na higdaan ang iyang abaga (She was playing with her sibling, and she fell on her shoulder)… Amo gi-brace ang bukton ug abaga sa bata aron mobalik ra ang bukog og kaayo (We made the child wear a brace so she can recover),” Bañacia recounted.
They also treated the youngest child’s boils.
“We decided to conduct general cleaning of their house. We disinfected it,” he shared.
Bañacia said he bought laundry soap, bath soap, shampoo and additional food for the children.
On his Facebook account, Bañacia said, “While their Mom was inside the isolation facility, we took care of the three kids in all their needs. We visited them 3 times a day to ensure they are safe.”
On Saturday afternoon, the kids’ mom and 16 other patients in the city who have recovered from the infectious disease were allowed to go home.
To their surprise, Bañacia and his team, who accompanied the returning mom, received personally made “Thank You” cards and letters from the children.
“Thank you on behalf of other people in this city, thank you for risking you’re life for us,” reads one letter.
“I always tried to keep my composure while doing our job even during the most challenging situation of separating a mother from her children. I was always stoic,” Bañacia wrote on his Facebook post.
“But the beautiful cards from the special three children of Sitio Sta. Maria caught my emotions after reading them. The Thank You that comes from their heart made me cry,” he said.
“And I though I was alone crying, nope. I saw my colleagues wiping their tears too after reading the messages.”
Bañacia told ABS-CBN News that “helping others to live is not a job for me; it’s a passion.”
As of posting, Lapulapu City has 262 cases of COVID-19, with 75 patients fully recovered.
