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I was having a pretty bad day at work today. It was my first time back on a regular morning shift after months of doing swing shifts and graveyards. Added to the fact that it was Monday, the first emails were simply just ominous of bad things coming. (Imagine realizing that you might not get paid on pay day despite working almost 24 hours every single day!) Sick boy and I were lolling and simply waiting for time to pass by.

That was until I initiated a chat message with Josh (Cyberprince Chronicles). I just wanted to catch up and greet him. My subconscious was saying that I absolutely had to get in touch with him today. When I asked him how he was, he told me “I’m okay. Mourning. Dan was a friend.” That’s when it hit me why Josh was in my subconscious over the weekend. When I heard about the news at noon on Saturday, I immediately thought of Josh because he mentioned Dan Campilan to me in one of our rare (now) conversations. Dan was the GMA 7 news reporter who got killed while driving in the early morning of Saturday.

Dan was lauded on air and on the web as an exemplary human being. Apart from his exceptional work as a reporter, his family life had been a major part of how he lived his life. You can read Howie Severino’s blog entry on Dan Campilan here.

Just by chatting with Josh, I could feel the pain and the anguish he felt with the loss of a close friend. It became much more personal and it touched me more than I expected. I never knew Dan personally but my heart went to him and the family he left behind. I told Josh one of the adages that I picked up from my Existentialism class, “in death, it’s the ones that get left behind that face the difficulties.”

My “problems” cannot even compare to what Dan struggled with in his life. He came from a poor family. He was the breadwinner, taking the responsibility of putting his siblings through school. He sacrificed each and every day to provide for his family but he did his work with excellence.

Your life on this earth may have been short but it was one that was well-lived. I am sure that the family you have left behind will be taken cared of even while you’re gone. Rest in peace Dan.