A Day With Joy

 

April 2001. It was a perfect combination. She has a driver’s license and a car but could not drive. Being new in California, I don’t have a California license but I can drive. What I have is a temporary permit to drive but only when accompanied by a person with a valid license. I have only a vague idea of some of the places we were to visit and don’t know one street from another. She has memorized the geography of Loma Linda and nearby cities. That’s how we got teamed up last Sunday for a day’s gallivanting and doing the errands she could not do alone.

I met Mercy Joy Corpuz way back in the early 80s at the Solijons’ residence more popularly known as 737 Constancia in Sampaloc. That place was then a regular hangout of people like Godfrey Calleja, Roger Saldia, Girlie Flores, myself and others. In fact Girlie eventually found her Romeo among those Alvin Patrimonio wannabes playing basketball in that vacant lot across the street. They are now residing in Mountain View College in Bukidnon with their two healthy boys. Girlie is teaching music while Jun works in the general maintenance section.

Joy has the height and bearing of a beauty contestant and Joandel  calls her Joy Tangkad to differentiate her from another Constancia habitué, Joy Gamponia, who is now residing in Seattle. At the time we first met, she was a fresh Journalism graduate from UP Diliman and was teaching at UP Los Baños. A typical UP student during the Martial Law years, Joy was an avid anti-Marcos activist in the same category with Joe Oclarit.

Her teaching stint in Los Baños was cut short when she went to Loma Linda University to pursue a master’s degree in Public Health. After obtaining her MPH degree she was hired by our denomination and was sent to Nicaragua as ADRA representative. She was only 6 months into her work in that country when she met an accident that changed her life forever. The car she was driving rammed into a huge military truck, whose fault it was, she could not remember now. She was in coma for 3 months. She stayed in a Nicaraguan hospital for one month until her condition stabilized before she was airlifted to Loma Linda Medical Center for treatment of severe brain injury.

Today she is blind in one eye, her speech a little bit slurry and walks with a limp. After a series of occupational therapy, her short-term memory is still poor but her long-term memory is returning. She has regained her wit and sense of humor. Her right arm still lacks full coordination but she can now do light chores like cooking and operating the washing machine. When working with her computer she uses her left hand to hold the mouse.

She was a gracious guide reminding me constantly of the traffic rules and signs that we conveniently disregard in the Philippines. She was a good navigator too except that I have to double check her directions because once in a while she got confused and would tell me to turn right or left when she meant exactly the opposite. Admittedly we made a couple of wrong turns.

We went to a gas station to refuel, to CompUSA to buy ink for her printer and to Cosco to buy some juice. Then we went to Loma Linda Medical Center and she toured me around. On the sixth floor, she proudly showed me the room which became her home for more than 2 months. It was one of a dozen or so rooms arranged in a circular fashion with the nursing station located at the center.

On our way to a Filipino fast-food restaurant named Manileño for a late lunch, we saw Dr. Levi Pagunsan driving a car with his wife Tess. He was pleasantly surprised to see me. We exchanged hellos and had a short conversation but he has to drive on because he was obstructing the traffic. It was a vegetarian lunch. I ordered halo-halo for dessert.