At home

Fifteen minutes after the fact, a friend called me up to tell me that her mother has died. Her mother was my patient. Her parents—kind, gentle, and who at one point told me when their hospital discharge was delayed, "Okay lang kami ah; wala problema maghulat kay senior citizens na kami"—reminded me of my own, which made this death harder to bear. After a short word of condolences, my friend and I talked about specifics: the death certificate, the paperwork, and so on. The consoling will come later, after the embalming and the funeral preparations.

I told my mother the news. She knew them from her hometown. Nanay said, "There's a certain lightness to dying when you know the person was a Christian."

There is. 

And my patient is home with the Lord. I will tell my friend that.