Echo's Past

          It was a cloudy Monday morning. As per usual, I woke up at around 7 am, and that routine that seemed like it'd never end until term break went on as always. The usual breakfast, the usual jeep-ride to the jeepney terminal at Pacita, and that short, yet time-consuming jeep ride at Calamba Crossing that goes to Letran were pretty much the same. But a certain song that repeatedly played on my iTouch last week suddenly popped-up and played out of the hundreds of anime songs in it. And that song was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5U9o_R2r2k

(Vacancy - By Kylee)

It played twice, and I thought it was mere coincidence (the jeep-ride to Calamba takes at least 45 mins to an hour) But little did I know that something tragic had already took place.

         The day was pretty much normal. I ordered my usual plate at Break Zone, and talked to my groupmates about our thesis proposal. The routine broke when one of my classmates invited me and my mates to play a game (DotA). 

At the computer shop

          The shop wasn't too shabby at first glance, but the number of pcs available were limited, and I happen to have stumbled upon a pc that didn't exactly fit the bill to play what I wanted to (I'm not trying to defame the shop, but its true). I decided to use the internet instead, and went immediately to Facebook. There weren't any notifications, but a certain "group" caught my eye. It was my alumni batch's group, which had already caught dust in my fb account. I was surprised to see the number of updates, a number that I'd never thought I'd see (it was, if I remember correctly, around 25+). Curious, I clicked it, and was surprised at the top post.

The Alumni Batch 2008 group

        

           This song immediately played in my head as I read through the post and its replies. A rumor, which I had hoped that wasn't true, had already spread like wildfire among the group. It came as a shock to most of us, and to some, a grave extent. To some, tears immediately fell, but to me, An observer (as usual), took things as they are. It was this post:

Only half of the rumor was true, though. The rumor was he never woke up. I had only confirmed the rumors from another friend of mine, who said that the rumor was real (about him being gone, not the part why he's gone). It wasn't until Tuesday night that I had believed that it was true. My friends and I went to his funeral wake. At that night, several other batchmates of ours were there. As I approached his coffin, I saw a peculiar picture, of which was recently taken, which was eventually blocked by the other guys near him (it wasn't spacious inside the house, and we were around fifteen in-front the coffin) His mother, then, told us the story of how he had passed away. She told us that he died because his pancreas (correct me if i'm wrong) failed, and it poisoned his blood. I had refused to look at his mother's eyes for more than ten seconds.

        Jerome was your average, fun loving guy when we were in Canossa Sta.Rosa. He's always that guy that no matter what you did, he'd always have either that perverted ecstatic look, or he's just plain laughing. He's that guy in the classroom that who ever you are, you'd get along with him (just don't be a jerk though). Although we were never classmates (most of my friends aren't either), I'm pretty sure he did well in highschool.

Well, I have to wrap this up, so I'm just going to say this: Rest in peace, Jerome Tee. Your memories with us, we will carry with the rest of our lives.

yeah....sorry for taking the photo without permission too... but here's Jerome Tee