So there we were, my uncle and his wife, my parents, and the driver...on the way to my dad's eldest sister's place in Broadway at around 11:45 pm on the eve of December 24. My Tita Helene had invited us for the noche buena, just a small affair with some of the relatives who could drop by. Tito Rudy had kindly fetched us (since my dad mistrusts taxis) on their way from Alabang and we were bowling happily along on Edsa when something caught my eye.
See, a couple of minutes previously my dad asked what church it was we had passed when he saw the ad saying "Jesus (caret sign) alone saves" or something to that effect. I had told him that the billboard on Edsa was not for a church but just a general ad.
My uncle had laughed and teased my dad about it when passed by Guadalupe MRT station. A couple of seconds later while my relatives were chatting about other things... I saw this van which was two vehicles in front of us zigzagging haphazardly. The driver had probably fallen asleep..either that or he didn't see this divider or well..I can't exactly call it island in the middle of the road. His vehicle crossed over to it and was now skidding across the island one car away from us.
I immediately pointed it out and we watched in horror as the van's lights flashed sporadically in front of us, we could see that it was an up and down and sideways motion as the driver wrestled with the steering wheel and his vehicle's manueverability when it was riding the blocks of cement. We were quite near to the vehicle and our driver dropped back a couple of feet.
A couple of seconds later (although these were looong seconds I tell you), the van's driver managed to luckily get off the divider/island and back to the main Edsa road. By some miracle, no one got hurt. For a minute I had thought that the van would turn turtle with the way it was moving about but by God's grace, all vehicles in the immediate vicinity of the van were not bumped or crashed into by the runaway vehicle. The van did slow down for a while after that..I think the driver had finally woken up and thought to himself "WTH just happened?"
It was only when we arrived at my aunt's place that I thought of the other way things might have turned out that pre-Christmas night. God forbid that we get involved in accidents on such an occasion..or even on ordinary days. Not to be over-dramatic but I mean, my relatives and I could have been in the hospital (I don't want to think of the morgue) if things had gone badly...*shivers* and I might not have gotten to eat the ham done according to my long-dead paternal grandma's recipe, nor the deliciously tender lengua which was part of the menu that night. Oh yeah, my mind turns to food at the oddest of moments. tip: for tender lengua, slow, slow cooking is the best way to get it to melt in your mouth afterwards...
I still do believe in guardian angels....I've always felt a presence with me wherever I go...and I've been all around Visayas and Mindanao at all times of the day or night....if someone needed protection those times when I walked the streets in the wee hours of the morning, it would have been me.
I don't think my guardian angel has abandoned me, inspite of my not the easiest of mortals to guide..hehehe...the angel may have lost a few feathers on the wings or locks of hair from the head due to my being hard-headed...but I think God may still have plans for me since I'm still around. Either that or bad weeds are harder to get rid of....*wink*
