Lightning will never hit the same place twice

Top: My Lola Mama, Auntie Jo, my Tito Nono's wife, mom of youngest apo and my cousin Noynoy, me with pink polka-dotted umbrella, mom.
Bottom: Inday, Tito Nono, Auntie Jo, Manoy Biboy, me, Manay Nic-Nic, Manay Virgie

These two pictures were taken on the same day that a terrible surge of lightning hit Mom and Dad's house and friend the electricity, the appliances and even the clothesline. This was like, if I was two years old here, more than 20 years ago. Nobody was home because I was visiting (remember I didn't live with them for like the first 18 years of my life?), and Noynoy Deoseph Barcelo Lamzon the cutest newborn was also in the house "sa takas" so picture2x sa "balay sa takas," and at the LIST amphitheater with Nono and Auntie Jo. Timay just went back to the house to get the camera daw when that lightning struck. It was crazy scary daw. 

So, ikaw? Did you duck down this afternoon when that terrible, terrible flash of lightning lit up the sky? Did you shriek when the thunder that followed scared the bejeezus out of you? Well, I did, too. 

And so did Mom and Dad and my nephew Toto Vince who were the only people at home when lightning hit the house again after 20+ years TODAY, as in this afternoon, and chunks of concrete flung into the "humba2x" where Dad or Mom would usually sit.

bBut this afternoon, Mom was sitting on the table with Toto Vince, who just came home from DELMES waiting for his Tatay to come get him, urging him to eat more food, and Dad was in the kitchen just a little bit away from the circuit breaker which exploded and blew apart and scattered the old toaster and some bottles which were in front of it. 

Mom said the flash was so bright she thought her coffee mug exploded and Dad said the thunder so loud that it was several times double a "granada" explosion (what's granada by the way, is it flashbomb or Molotov cocktail? I'm not sure). Toto Vince ducked under the table daw but then his cockiness soon resumed a few hours later when he asked Mom, "Ano, Mommy, kaagi si Daddy guro pangawat sang gamay na hay? Insa kilatan kita haw?" ("Mommy, I bet Daddy has stolen something when he was a kid, ano? Is that why lightning hit us?")

Hehe. :) When we're all home, Vince was super-duper enthusiastic in telling about his experience absorbing all of Mommy's "Abi ko mapatay dun kami!" ("I thought we were going to die!") exclamations. When Timay came, his greeting was "Mama Panen, kalag dun kami!" (Mama Panen, we're already ghosts!")

How scary yet surely unreal and unforgettable. How I wish I was there. Really. I'm sure it was like witnessing something that you're not supposed to see, like that weird broadcaster guy in the movie "2012" who went to the top of the mountain to welcome the end of the world, or maybe like when Thor hit the Earth when he fell from Asgard. Like Death. Cool.

My only thought this afternoon when that lightning hit and cut the school's power off was "Oh no, I can't print and photocopy my exam for my next class." Wow. Mom and Dad and my little nephew could have been embers now, thank you dear God for not letting that happen and for giving Toto Vince an experience that I hope he will never ever forget and that someday will fuel something creative from him. Yey!

#neversaynever #lightningandthunder #scary #cool #morbid #unforgettable #wishiwasthere