A tale of friendship

Friends will keep you warm in the Decembers of your life. They will also cool you down in your seemingly unbearable summers. No matter what the season is, the friends you keep will always be your buoy as you bob up and down in the middle of the deep blue sea; your laughing gas amidst life’s many uncertainties; your Energizer Bunny when you’re running out of inertia; even your chamomile tea when all you need to do is to reflect on life or simply let your thoughts wander around.

Friendship is a big thing for the members of the UPLB Com Arts Society, the official organization of students and alumni of the BA Communication Arts program at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños. In the middle of summer’s barbecuing heat, while the university was on break, we went back to the campus that taught us not only scholarly knowledge but also the wisdom of valuing human relationships.

Any member of the Com Arts Soc knows how important human relationship is. Everyone is aware that friendship heals. That particular trip to UPLB that we did a few Saturdays ago was not only meant for bonding but also for healing — for Mamu’s healing.

Mamu is Therry Reyes, the cuddly and jovial alumna of the Soc who discovered last July that she had advanced cancer of the ovary and uterus. She lives alone in Toronto where she works as a laboratory technologist (yes, she took up another course when she migrated to Canada).

When she was having her chemo treatments, Therry would sometimes be accompanied by the friends she made in Canada. Many times, however, she had to bring herself alone to the hospital. Therry’s “brods” and “sisses” from the Com Arts Soc burned telephone lines with her just to “accompany” her to the hospital before her treatment. In that sense, as Therry always says, “I was never alone in my fight.”

This fact didn’t escape Tiffany Urrutia, a Soc alumna who has the eagle’s eye for details. Since not everybody could fly to Toronto to visit Therry, Tiffany took it upon herself to hop from one Manila-based Com Arts Soc member’s house to another for a video clip to be sent to Therry via YouTube. Tiffany even went to the extent of getting get-well-soon video greetings from Filipino news anchors and celebrities — all in her attempt to make Therry feel better. Somehow, somewhere it worked. Therry finished her chemo sessions with a smile on her face and a grateful heart. She lost her hair in the process but she did not lose hope — because in her heart, aside from her family in the Philippines, there are Com Arts Soc friends around the world who care for her. For Therry, “Com Arts Soc is love and hope because Com Arts Soc is a humongous dose of laughter.”

When Therry announced on Facebook early this year that she would visit the Philippines after her more than six years stint in Canada, we, her friends, had a jamboree in our hearts — we also readied our individual laughter sac. (No Com Arts Soc get-together is devoid of head-splitting laughter.) Again, Tiffany, who has a fall-back career in bringing people together, organized a mini-reunion. What better way to stage it than at the Humanities Steps of UPLB, the cradle of our youth, an inanimate yet intimate witness to the many follies we made in our lives when we were just growing our wings that we would use to realize our many dreams.

From Manila, there were nine Com Arts Soc alumni traveling separately to Los Baños that Saturday. Other LB-based alumni were awaiting our arrival. While we were on SLEX, our hearts leaped out of our chests in excitement when a thick veil of clouds on the horizon was lifted to give way to a full view of Mt. Makiling.

Our first stop was Dalampasigan, a restaurant in the town proper that seemed to float in the middle of Laguna de Bay. During lunchtime, Dalampasigan was witness to our controlled appetite but uncontrollable joy. There was pandemonium as we ate sinigang na kanduli sa miso, inihaw na liempo, tortang talong and manggang kalabaw with bagoong that I thought the waiters readied the fire extinguishers anytime the situation became combustible. There were only nine of us but the hyena-like laughter we produced seemed to emanate from 9,000 people. And what did we laugh about? Mundane jokes of yesteryears that we were all familiar with; funny stories that were given new twists but with the same punch lines. With our self-deprecating humor came gallons and gallons of sweat from all of us. We laughed and laughed until Mamu had to wipe away the tears of joy in our eyes. That moment, we knew we were all serious in making Mamu laugh because it was the best gift that we thought could heal her.

After lunch, we burped our way to UPLB — straight to the Humanities Steps, the “universal tambayan” of all university students. The building was closed but it certainly opened our minds to ruminate on the many beautiful memories we made in UPLB in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Mamu’s eyes lighted up as she navigated through the steps with her cane. Gen Enriquez-Gerodias, Joee Mendiola-Manalo and lawyer Jennifer Jimeno-Atienza remembered how they fostered their friendship on the steps, where once upon a time they exchanged notes on NatSci 1 and notes on the best shade of Clinique lipstick. Maria Bernadette Ortega-Hernandez just had a big, big smile as she walked around. Our LB-based “sisses” Alexandra Cabrera and Raquel Gayahan with Com Arts Soc friend Binky Reyna-Pantastico also joined us in the merrymaking. Romulo Palis and Titus Arce were non-stop in recalling the many times we all gathered at the Humanities Steps to sing away our blues or pent-up emotions common to the youth. Life was so simple then. The friendship was sincere. It is the brand of friendship that the members of the UPLB Com Arts Soc are known for.

After more than six hours of non-stop laughing and reminiscing, we bid UPLB adieu. In our hearts, we knew we would return, even if returning to UPLB would mean having an almost locked-jaw experience due to non-stop laughter when we are together.

The friendship we share at the Com Arts Soc is a secure relationship; it doesn’t matter if we are separated by time or distance. There are many days, even months or years, that we don’t hear from each other but we always make sure to rise to the occasion when needed. After all, as Therry always puts it, Com Arts Soc is love.

Our friends are the Melatonin pills of our lives. It is in their imaginary arms that we cling to as we slumber away on long and starless nights. And if we wake up on a dreary day, we still manage to smile and laugh because they paint the sunshine in our eyes.

At the UPLB Com Arts Soc, we are each other’s human Prozac — we sincerely keep each other high.

(For your new beginnings, please e-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com. I’m also on Twitter @bum_tenorio.Have a blessed Sunday!)