Jocy Pagapulan and her family are PSHF grant recipients from a long time ago. Sadly her parents died from lung ailments and pneumonia when Jocy was still a child and two of her siblings died from dehydration and polio. Jocy’s family has experienced so much deprivation in life.

 

Almost everyone in Miranda knows Jocy, the girl with the hunched back. This was the result of her incurring tuberculosis of the spine when she was a child. Despite her handicap and the people’s banter about her situation she persevered and went on to graduate from high school. The PSHF subsequently helped Jocy to do a 2-year course in food technology and she graduated with flying colors. Jocy got married to Jose and they were blessed with one daughter name Joecelynia. Richard Foster, the PSHF founder attended their simple wedding ceremony in 2012.

 

Jocy and Jose had a good relationship and worked hard for their daughter, nicknamed Caylin. To help her husband, Jocy earned an income from doing manicure and pedicure and sold tickets in the small town lottery (STL) to earn a commission to support their daughter. Due to poverty and financial setbacks, unexpected problems occurred in their lives. In 2023, Jose was caught up in a police drug buy bust and jailed. Jocy never gave up and never lost hope. She worked hard to support her daughter alone and visited her husband every weekend.

 

On February 28th, Jocy dropped by to see her friend Cristina, a neighbor of ours to open up about some concerns she had. Later, she went home to get something before returning to Cristina’s house. Cristina offered her some bread rolls and Jocy had brought coke. A few hours later, my brother-in-law came to my house to borrow our blood pressure monitor as there was an emergency with Jocy. I followed him and we found Jocy looking pale, sweating, and cross-eyed. An elderly neighbour was massaging her elbow and arms and her legs could not move. Cristina ran to the Barangay hall to ask for help. A few minutes later, an emergency vehicle arrived with a first-aid team. Cristina and I lifted Jocy onto a stretcher. Jocy was brought to the Pontevedra Health Center briefly and then rushed to the nearest hospital. She was comatose on arrival; Cristina applied a hand manual oxygen pump but her body did not respond. The news spread to our PWD (person with disability) group chat. Calls went out for prayer and donations for Jocy’s medical needs.

 

The next day our group members delivered our contributions. The amount was not big but it was a help. Jocy died in the afternoon and we were deeply saddened to lose our friend and former PWD President. My thoughts went out to Cailyn, Jocy’s daughter - she will be so distressed - who will look after her with her mother gone and her father in jail? 

 

Sherry Cataluña

 

Postscript. Jocy’s funeral was held on March 7th and it was attended by several people from the PWD community, high school friends of Cailyn’s as well as many from the local community all of whom had held her in great affection.