Superman Has Left the Building

Yesterday was a reality check for me and most of my classmates. I was awakened at about 5:30am by my ringing cellphone. My good friend and classmate Rapa Lopa was calling unusually early. As I picked up the phone I heard Rapa's voice trembling as he told me that our classmate and friend Jet Tanjangco had passed away at around 2:00am. Details were sketchy but all he could tell me was that Jet's wife, Leah, found his lifeless body sprawled on the bathroom floor. Based on the autopsy, it was an aneurysm that filled his brain with blood and caused him to collapse.

My initial reaction was "Wow!! Si Jet?!!" Among all my classmates, he was the most energetic, lively and fun. We got to see each other more often this year because of our high school silver jubilee. The last time I saw Jet was three weeks ago when my class had a get-together. I can still remember that he came to the gathering from the Ateneo high school bonfire. He was slurring already and he was convincing Rapa to go to Fiamma, a bar frequented by the young crowd. The day before he died, he even sent me a text message saying "Where can I call you? Do you have a landline?". I did some creatives for his processed bangus business so I knew that he would ask me to design more creatives for him. I wasn't able to reply soon. I remembered his text message late in the evening and I decided to just reply the following day because it was already late at night. Next day, he was gone. Very eerie. That is the second time that has happened to me. I had a missed call from my friend and basketball teammate Leo Daez the day before he passed on.



Last night, as we were waiting for his body to arrive in Santuario de San Antonio, my classmates and I were talking about our state of health, our maintenance medications, our aches and pains. Unlike before, during our high school days when we felt we could challenge everything and felt like supermen, we now think of ourselves as mere mortals, stripped of our super powers and invincibility. We are humbled by the thought that we could be whisked away from this earth anytime, anywhere.

Look, up in the sky!! It's a bato-bato bird? It's a tora-tora plane? Superman has left the building!!