Anti Eppie

Anti Epifania Magtagad

We met her the first time when she came to our Saturday Celebration. She had a big abscess on her jaw and it look very bad. They extracted a tooth in October and since then the abscess is growing. It opened up and believe me this is not for the faint of heart. I always need to remind me of the times we had with Anti Luz and how good God was for us. I saw her x-rays and her jawbone is eaten away by the severe infection. Now they diagnose her with Squamous cell Carcinoma.

At this point she is receiving Cobalt therapy every day and ever since that started she have severe pain. She is getting this teartment for 22 times and then they will see again. It take me 2 hours to clean the wound. We were looking at it this this evening and July , our nurse in MMC , said it do not look. It is now a time for us to keep positive and I shared to uncle Elfredo, husband, that he need to be strong and that we need to help each other. She is already on Morphine and we have to increase the dosage cause the pain is out of this world. The smell is not for the ordinary one. Every thing I see and eat remind me of this. If the infection pass to the limfnodes they can nothing for her. At this point the infection is so far that it do not look like so far off track as we think. We need to be optimistic, but is hard if you see this kind of wound.

Soon she came to our house as they were worried that we would scare pregnant ladies away from the clinic, because of the smell. Every morning and every evening we cleaned her wound. We put in a nose-feed for her in order to get food inside her stomach. She could not eat at all and could only drink milk. With the help of Julie we mixed up some pretty fancy food and vitamins and blend it till bulp. Then uncle Elfredo had to just give it to her with a syringe. By now she had a nose feed jube running from her nose. As the Pinoys are always tell us how nice our Long noses are , uncle Elfredo said.:”Well my wife is very beautiful as he have a very long nose.”

The wound became worse and worse and there was none we could do. We tried even to brush her mouth as she just had puss in her mouth. After a very busy morning at the Badjaos we head home just to been called to say that anti Epifania i s bleeding. When I came there the place look like they cut of her neck. She was sitting with a bucket between her legs and the pot was full of blood with lots of blood over the floor. The blood was streaming out of her mouth uncontrollable.

This whole seen reminds me of something from a Halloween movie but is playing for real. Man was I afraid. What to do? Luckily July was there and we prayed and the blood started to clot. Pieces like my hand came out of her mouth. We transported her on a stretcher trough little houses where you barely can walk normally we went trough with this stretcher. She was even scolding Toinette because she did not keep the umbrella over her face. There was no room to walk as the house were so close to each other. I thought we lost her but do not worry, this girl have a fighting spirit. She fought back.

At the hospital they helped us very nice and praise God they recognize us as we come there a lot. Everybody was so helpful. She is doing fine at this point and no need for a blood transfusion. Ya, you are right. Her hemoglobin is not that low and the doctor will see till tomorrow. He said she lost a lot of fluid and not so lots of plasma. Praise God.

Please for for uncle Elfredo and his daughter. She is in shock and ran away after we just came back form the province. Yesterday was another day that you do not want to have if you can chose about it. Anti Epifania were in the hospital and she went for her Cobalt therapy, cause they said that it will stop the bleeding. This morning I decided that I want to ask them what the extend of the wound is. The doctor said to me that the wound is already at stage 4 and they cannot do anything for the anti. The Cobalt is just prolonging the life of Anti E. It hid me between the eyes that we need to get Anti E. To her home as soon as possible.

I told uncle Elfredo that he need to decide what to do. He said we need to go home. Now to get an ambulance. July organized one but had to get authorization from the mayor. The mayor was not in and we had to wait till 2pm. In the meanwhile in the hospital there was havoc. Anti E. started to bleed again and by now she was covered in blood. I helped Elfredo to clean her and we put her a new dress on. That made her feel more comfortable. In the meanwhile July got hold of Matt and he said that he will take is to the province. Anti E. was asking to go home and we just had to comfort her all the time.

She started to bleed again when we were in the car but it was now to late we needed to go. We loaded everything in and extra people and we went off. The road was long and anti E. was fighting it the whole way. The bleeding stopped and we just had to keep her calm down. She started to get cold and was complaining a lot at some times. After about 3 hours we were there.

She was so happy to be there. I carried her ill ridden body to the home and as I got her in the door she started to get into shock. Was not nice to watch her . In my whole life I did not feel so hopeless but had the peace of God inside me that we need to let go. We cannot do much for her. Carla also went with and she helped me so much. I asked her to change ant E. into new and clean clothes so that she is comfortable. She felt so good after that. The night before she asked the uncle to go and buy a new umbrella and cutex to paint her nails so she look nice for the children. She was so exited to see her children.

Elfredo had to send for his children as they were far away. We cleaned her and made her comfortable on the floor. She was calling God all the time. We prayed with her and try to calm down everybody. Matt and all the others had to leave before it become dark and soon after they left she past away. It was 6h15pm. What a day.

She passed away in the most quite way. There was no bleeding no struggling just a sense of peace over her. Again I had to tell Elfredo that it was time to say goodbye. Our prayer was that she will die quietly and without any bleeding. She did. We thank God for her release. She died at home and in peace away from the hardship in Davao. We were so glad that we could made it home in time.

I want to thank everybody form MMC and Carla, Garry, Matt, Elsa and most of all July for all they have done to help us through this time. I am proud to be part of a team like that. Without you guys this effort would never be a success. Now most of you feel that we lost big time but let me assure you that we won a whole community. We made a friend for life in Elfredo and his family and they are soooooo grateful to everybody. For all the pictures that everybody gave, this is a blessing. they were looking at the pictures last night and remembered her.

She was an incredible lady in her place. The testimonies of her love and kindness will still stay with people forever. I am so privileged to be part of her life for such a short time. Carla and me had a wonderful time with them last night. We slept for 1-2 hours trough the night, the rest was
filled with laughter and crying and talking about anti E. We had a wonderful time in a small house on a bamboo floor. this showed me that giving love is not asking for something big but giving much of yourselves at the end. God want us to give our lives to Him so that He can use it to glorify His Kingdom. Like Carla said, " I did not met a group of people that strong in their faith and mature in the Christian faith before." Anti E's family is faithful children of God and to see a solid family like that mourning about a loved one makes me sad. Such a shame that a mother need to pass away.

Carla encouraged the girls and I took the men and talk to them. The children was not aware of the situation of the wound and they though that she was doing fine. We explained to them the illness and how this work. they did not see her in 2 months and now was the time to see her. I was left with a lot of questions. We should have got her home earlier but we saved them a lot of suffering. It is like Matt say," There is no if's in a situation like that."We did what we thought good for her and we hanged onto hope and it did not work out. To God be the glory.

Thank you every one for all your prayers through this day and night we were out there. We felt God's presence was with us and we are looking forward to a better future with the people of the province. We will visit them again on Monday and they will put her to rest then at her home up the mountain. Elfredo will plant some African flowers that she took from me in Davao, on
her grave. She would have liked that. We miss her already. Time will heal the wounds.

The big task lays ahead and that is the follow-up of Elfredo. To make a friend is easy but to work on a relationship we need to make an effort. I feel that we can have a big impact on this small church. Pray for strength for the family as they prepare everything. Pray that God will help us to
think of the good times we had with them.

God is good.

After many years I finally had to opportunity to visit them again and what a reunion it was. To see my old friend so precious that brought back such good memories. I know that the Lord brought us together for a purpose and that we will be friends forever.

This song was written by Carla Snyder

We barely even knew her and we rarely saw her smile

But we learned so much more about her since she’s gone

Her love will always greet you with her arms out open wide

How her wounds can make a weak one strong


Epifania you were a blessing in disguess

Epifania we saw Jesus in your eyes

Epifania loving mother faithful wife

Epifania we thank Jesus for your life


In your suffering there was patience

In her pain perfect peace

Though the end was not exactly what she planned

So she choose to trust her Maker

And to believe in God is good

And to leave her precious family in His hands


Epifania trusting Jesus till the end

Epifania in your pain you were a friend

Epifania loving mother faithful wife

Epifania we thank Jesus for your life


Surely the Lord is good

Though we sad to see you go

Taking you when He did was in His time
We know

If the world will never leave us and the Love will linger on

Till we join you as you worship at His throne

We believe that you are with Him, that your spirit never died

And your journey here finally called you home


Epifania now you’re standing by His side

Epifania you were Jesus precious bride

Epifania loving mother faithful wife

Epifania we thank Jesus for your life