Billy, are there chairs to wreck in heaven?

Last Sunday, the family and close friends of the late STAR columnist Billy Esposo  (As I Wreck This Chair) gathered for Mass at the Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park to quietly celebrate his 65th birth anniversary.

Esposo, who passed away last April 7, so looked forward to his 64th birthday last year, he texted his guests, “How would you like to sing with me the Beatles song ‘When I’m 64….”  He loved marking his birthdays because he loved life and loved to celebrate it with good food, excellent wine and the company of true friends.

That was last year, and Billy is now in heaven to celebrate his 65th birthday big time. As he has the past couple of years, Billy’s Ateneo classmate Bobby del Rosario hosted the birthday dinner, this time at the Manila Polo Club. Present were Billy’s widow Meyang, sister Dodo Claro, nephews and nieces; close friends like Boy and Maria Montelibano, Jan Co-Chua, Conrad de Quiros and Boy Saycon.

I asked Meyang if Billy has ever let her feel his presence ever since he passed on (“Paramdam”). She said not to her, but to a nephew.

Maria Montelibano, however, had a vivid sighting of Billy. Shortly after Billy died, she felt him waking her up at 4 a.m. with the message to have Meyang’s blood sugar checked. (Meyang, you see, suffers from hypoglycemia, which could lead to a coma if unchecked). So Maria remembers asking Billy in her “dream” who she could relay the message to, and Billy told her, “Sa kapatid ko.”

So Maria immediately called up Billy’s sister Carol, who called up the hospital where Meyang was confined for a check-up. At the time, the nurses were about to end shifts and when the next duty nurse checked on Meyang’s sugar, it was dangerously low and Meyang was in a near stupor. They saved her in the nick of time!

“After that,” recalls Maria, “I fell into a deep restful sleep.”

* * *

 Billy left big shoes to fill, as big as his dreams of the country, as big as the legacy he left behind.

During his eulogy for Billy last year, President Noynoy Aquino described Esposo as his “dear friend” and the “prophet” who stood by his conviction to run for President.

 The President even shared the origin of the title of Billy’s column.

“To Billy — I know you liked to share the story of how you got the name ‘Chair Wrecker.’ If I’m not mistaken, many years back, one of my uncles was teasing you about possibly destroying the chair you were sitting on. So, you got up, and, lo and behold, the chair was left intact. But, when my uncle, who was teasing you, sat down in that same chair — the chair broke. I remember that story today — I hope that you will allow yourself to move on and rest, and leave the job of wrecking chairs to us,” Aquino said.

The late STAR founding chairman Betty Go-Belmonte used to call Billy, “Partner,” because her Christian name was “Billie Mary” and so they had the same first names.  I think he is the only friend and business associate she ever addressed as, “Partner.”

Tita Betty and Billy were one of the first Cory Aquino “yellow-yalists.” Billy set up the Cory Aquino Media Bureau at the J. Cojuangco Building in Makati during the Snap Elections campaign of 1985-1986 and Isaac Belmonte, Betty’s and Sonny Belmonte’s firstborn, helped him set it up.

Isaac then recruited me to be one of the bureau’s writers and so you could say that Billy was my first big boss in the Cory years.

* * *

When told he needed a new kidney (he had a kidney transplant in 2002) to survive, Billy was courageous and relentless in his battle.  His book Kidney Diaries, launched the other year with President Aquino and Vice President Jejomar Binay in attendance, was the diary of man’s conquest of fear and adversity and God’s benevolence. It is one of Billy’s many legacies, because it is a book of hope clothed in humor and faith.

“Through my many medical crises,” he wrote in his book, “I often wondered why several of my religious friends and kin keep saying that our physical sufferings are excellent opportunities to be one with God, to be God’s instrument. To be one with Christ in his sufferings, that I can appreciate. To be God’s instrument especially when you’ve lost much of your physical capabilities  — I failed to appreciate and internalize that.”

Then one day, after another medical crisis, he got a text message from his friend Ray Asprer, head of the Focolare in Manila, which gave him the insight on “how our ailments can become part of our sanctification.”

“In good health, you, Billy, were able to push a lot of people to move on the various causes that you’ve constantly advocated,” Rey told him. “In sickness, you’ve pushed a lot of people to love.”

Even when in the throes of pain, Billy looked at the bright side of even the most difficult of situations, sharing that for the first few hours of dialysis he could have lechon, siopao, even caviar (which he downed with beer at the dialysis room of the Makati Medical Center, I kid thee not). He talked of great pain (when he called on all the saints in heaven), but he also exulted in the generosity and kindness of the human spirit — as manifested in doctors, friends, even strangers.

“This story is not just about going to hell and back,” says Inquirer columnist Conrado de Quiros, a close friend of Billy. “It is about learning to find heaven while at it.”

Billy joked that one of the best ways to fight kidney disease, and any disease for that matter, is to load up on humor.

And that’s the best gift Billy gives those who knew and loved him — despite bitter pills, sour notes and “just desserts,” never lose your appetite for life and your zest in serving the motherland.

  (You may e-mail me at joanneraeramirez@yahoo.com.)