No matter how old people get and what position they now occupy in their lives, they are always going to be their mother’s children. This is true in the case of Vice President Leni Robredo who commemorated her mother’s first death anniversary today, February 22.
In a Facebook post, Robredo recalled “how difficult the first two months of 2020 has been.”
Then 83 years old, Salvacion “Sally” Gerona was brought to the hospital in Naga before New Year 2020. The vice president never disclosed the cause of her mother’s death.
She wanted to bring her to Manila at first because she was based here and because all her siblings are working overseas.
But when her mother refused to be in Manila, “that meant, for me, going back and forth to Naga every week to be with her.”
This happened while the vice president was also busy doing relief operations for the victim of Taal Volcano, which started erupting just after New Year on January 12, 2020.
“I was by her bedside, holding her hand, while the angels were already summoning her. I was updating my siblings on Viber, who took turns visiting her before that,” Robredo wrote.
“It is still heart-wrenching until now when I recall how her blood pressure slowly dipped and she flatlined. And it was just the two of us plus her doctors inside the cold, lonely ICU cubicle she has been occupying,” she added.
Robredo was in Naga City over the weekend to commemorate her mother’s first death anniversary “one day early with a mass in the house where we all grew up in and which was witness to many happy memories for more than 5 decades.”
While there, she also attended the Naga City People’s Council, which was a contribution of her late husband, former Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo.
“Her body has already been interred beside my Dad and they are finally together again enjoying eternal life,” the vice president shared.