Goodbye Gen

After almost 10 months of abandoning my Friendster account, I finally found time to update my profile and pictures. It was also there that I learned that on Sunday, 18 October 2009, Genalyn Rodriguez – Basa of Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo, passed away after battling abdominal cancer for almost a year. Gen’s baby brother Ryan posted a shout out saying that he’ll miss her Ate and that he’s praying that his Ate’s soul is with her Creator. There’s something weird with Ryan’s shout out so I rushed and called him on his mobile phone. He confirmed that indeed, his Ate Gen passed away. The line got cut off so I called Raul, Gen’s younger brother who happens to be my classmate at the Sun Yat Sen High School. The mobile phone was answered by Raul’s wife Rosette. Raul was already in Iloilo preparing for Gen’s burial.


I decided to wait for another day before calling Raul. Raul’s one of my best buddy back in my High School days. We were classmates for 4 years. We use to call him ALOG since he came from Manila and could barely speak Hiligaynon. He was our Corps Commander at the C.A.T. Raul’s been a good friend to me. We parted ways after graduating High School. Ryan was only 5 or 6 years old and was at a Kindergarten at that time.

About two years ago, Gen initiated a contact with me through the help of the social networking site Friendster. She was kind enough to introduce herself saying that she’s Raul’s elder sister and that she’s a dentist in Riyadh. I added her, Raul and then Ryan to my list of friends. Early last year Ryan got a job offer here in Dammam. The last time that I spoke to Gen, she told me that she underwent an operation back home. She only said that she’s been having problems with her ovaries and that she may not be able to bear a child. I never really thought that it was cancer and that serious because she came back to Riyadh right after the operation.

According to Raul, Gen adopted a baby early this year. About two months ago, she went back to the Philippines for a routine check up in Manila. It was there that the doctors found out that her cancer relapsed. The tumor already spread in her intestines and its squeezing her internal organs. They were told that she’ll not live longer so they decided to bring her back to Iloilo. Raul said that Gen fought for another 2 weeks before finally succumbing to cancer.

It was sad losing somebody who is a gentle soul. I pray that she’s happy wherever she may be. To Gen, God bless your soul. May you rest in peace. Gen’s body will be laid to rest in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo on Tuesday, 27 October 2009.