Fire in February.
I just arrived home in the afternoon from the Blue Mosque when a fellow sister informed me about the fire incident in Tandang Sora, Quezon City.
The plan to work in a little mission must be accomplished.
Instead of running to the bakeshop to buy some sweets (I ran out of time to bake so I promised to buy later) for my two daughters who happened to have the same birth months, I decided to be with my fellow moms to accomplish a mission: to contribute something to the fire victims.
It was a sunny morning as we parked in front of Luzon market in Commonwealth to buy some school supplies and personal needs for the school kids whose personal belongings including school materials were damaged by the fire.
Now we have to shop until the budget drops! We walked under the sun; hopped from one store to another and strolled around the dry market with pleasure until we decided to run to Pure Gold grocery store to buy the things for the hygiene kit.
Our shopping period was done for a couple of hours until our bellies craved for lunch! (Thanks Hannah for the meals!). We then mounted our vehicle and made our way to the site. There were young ladies (one of them was Marwan) who volunteered and helped us packed the items individually and distributed it to the school kids delightedly.
Marwan was one of the fire victims. She was a long-time friend of a fellow mom’s daughter, Haleema (who also came with us). After a long period of separation, they never thought they would meet again until the fire incident happened.
What a blessing in disguise! The incident was merely an instrument for two friends to meet and come together again unexpectedly after a long period of disunity. Marwan was so happy to see Haleema and was thankful to receive some clothes donation from her friend.
When asked if we could see Marwan’s place that had been destroyed by the fire, she didn’t refused instead with good grace accompanied us to see her ruined apartment. Marwan’s face did not seem to be burned by humiliation but with the light of acceptance.
The photo above was actually the stairway of Marwan’s three-floor apartment. Inside her living quarter, she showed us her personal possessions that had been destroyed by the fire. Some were reduced to ashes except for few things and her copy of the Holy Qur’an. How happy she was, her copy of the holy book was saved!
The burned stairways reflected by the shaft of sunlight caught my eyes. I took a snapshot. A thought stopped me for a moment as I gazed at the stairways:
The light appeared in the guise of darkness.
© Copyright 2017 JoyWadi 062817
from fear to freedom by joywadi 