MANILA, Philippines - At the age of 44, Renato Gurion “wanted to live longer” for his two teenaged boys. After undergoing heart surgery five years ago, the gym buff and businessman devoted his life to the Black Nazarene, wishing for better health and protection.
Half a decade since his devotion, Gurion died. He was just beside the life-size statue, in the midst of the feast of the miraculous image of Christ.
Gurion was no longer moving when the Hijos del Nazareno, the Church appointed security of the Nazarene, saw his body slumped on the carriage shortly before 8 a.m. While devotees were shouting “viva,” the hijos, carrying his body, were shouting “ibaba” (get it down).
For someone who had undergone angioplasty, Gurion should have been given medical treatment within five minutes after another heart attack. However, it remained unclear how long it took before Gurion was attended to.
“They are not sure how long he was slumped there. He was lying there in the carriage and he was not moving when they saw him,” Gurion’s brother-in-law, Jun Lapuz said.
Lapuz said the hijos tried to bring the unconscious Gurion down from the carriage but he fell inside.
He said the hijos took some 15 minutes to bring Gurion out of the carriage before rushing him to hospital.
“It took some 10 minutes more before they were able to bring him to the hospital,” Lapuz said.
Initially, thousands of devotees surrounding the carriage had no idea there was an emergency. The rowdy crowd was busy fighting their way up to the Nazarene until they saw the hijos alighting from the carriage to rush Gurion to the hospital.
When they reached Manila Doctors Hospital at 8:07 a.m., physicians immediately declared Gurion dead upon arrival.
Outside the emergency room, Gurion’s relatives and friends broke into tears. They will miss his caring and comic personality, Lapuz said.
“He’s a good person, with a good sense of humor. We’ll miss his company,” said the teary-eyed Lapuz while staring blankly.
Then he fell silent. Before tears could fall, Lapuz shook his head.
“When I saw him at the hospital, I remember him telling me that I should be careful with my health. Now it was the other way around,” he said.
A devoted father
A week before Gurion’s death, he posted photos of his sons, aged 15 and 13, on Facebook and announced to the world how much he wanted to live longer for them.
“The reasons why do I want to live longer...” Gurion said.
Gurion was a father of three. His devotion to the Nazarene started he lost his only daughter, then seven years old, to cardiac arrest in 2009.
The death, which came months after Gurion went under the knife, devastated their family, especially his wife Roda.
“From then on, he became a devotee of the Nazarene. Whatever he does in life, he devotes it to the Nazarene,” Lapuz said.
This year, Gurion started serving the Black Nazarene on Jan. 1, and since then was unable to get a proper rest.
Devout Catholic
Gurion started out as an usher in Quiapo church during Friday and Sunday masses. He became active in Church activities that when he applied to become one of the hijos for the procession, he was immediately accepted.
“That was his dream (to be a member of the hijos). He felt like doing something that others cannot do,” Lapuz said.
While serving the church, Gurion’s business and health improved.
It did not take a year before Gurion was able to regain his strength, or so he believed. His nephew Anthony Radaso, 29, said his uncle started biking around Luneta Park and joining marathons not long after the surgery.
“He could even finish 50 to 60-kilometer run,” Radaso said.
Gurion’s family believed that he was physically fit again. Besides, one could rarely hear the gym buff complain about his health.
“He was always lively and funny. Before he died, he was always making fun of the people working in the church. We never expected this would happen to him,” sister-in-law Isabela Lapuz said.
Isabela and Jun said there was nothing unusual about their brother-in-law yesterday, except for one thing.
“He was always the first to eat. But yesterday, instead of eating first, he served every one of us,” Jun said.
A day before the Black Nazarene feast, Gurion complained of chest pains to his fellow hijos.
He was advised to rest but because of his commitment, Gurion insisted on serving the Black Nazarene.
Isabela is unsure how Roda, the widow, would take the blow when she is still reeling from her daughter’s death.
“Her husband has been her inspiration. Now that he is gone… I don’t know,” Isabela said.
Trying it out
Just like Gurion and a million others, 39-year-old Maureen Sananile became a devotee of the Nazarene.
Sananile has long been curious on how it is to join the procession of the Feast of the Black Nazarene.
Unlike Gurion, Maureen was afraid of being squeezed by the crowd so she never tried it out until yesterday. She joined the millions of devotees with one prayer in mind – her own healing.
“I was diagnosed to have a heart ailment last year and my heart is also enlarged. I have seven children and I’m afraid something will happen to me so I decided to have devotion to the Black Nazarene,” said Maureen, a mother from Blumentritt in Sta. Cruz.
Maureen said she and her husband’s earnings as ambulant vendors of house decorations are not enough to cover for her medication so she wanted to be healed the “natural way.”
As a mother, she would rather spend money for her children’s food and schooling than her own medicines so she is praying through the Black Nazarene to be healed.
Although Maureen could only watch the procession on the sidelines because of her condition, she is hoping that her prayers will be granted.
“I realized the hardship faced by the devotees but I still want to do this again next year, God permitting,” she said.
But for another mother, 44-year-old Mabel Garcia of Sta. Lucia in Novaliches, Quezon City, this year’s procession is dedicated to the healing of her 16-year-old daughter Nina who has been diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease. – With Sheila Crisostomo?