Remembering Doc Soc

Yesterday afternoon Marcus, Luke and I went to Bahay Sanay to Doc Soc’s wake to pay our respects to him and spend some time with his family. We chose to go at a quieter time, because we didn’t want to take the chance of Luke disrupting the services that have been going on every evening. As I knew it would be, the wake was terribly sad. Soc’s death is just such a huge loss to so many and he is so greatly missed. If you didn’t see the article I posted on what kind of man Soc was, please read Dempto Anda’s Inquirer article here. 

Soc with his beloved grandson, Ethan

While Soc was very active in fighting corruption, he also devoted his life to helping heal and rehabilitate people with disabilities. Not only would he conduct operations and work on rehabilitation for free when people came to his organization, Bahatala, but if he heard of someone in a far flung village who had never been able to walk, or whose infected limb needed to be amputated, he would take the time to find that person, and provide the treatment he or she needed.

I was so moved yesterday by one of the people at Soc’s wake. I watched a family of four come in – a couple with their two sons. I noticed that the older son who is likely a teenager, was shuffling in more slowly than the others. When I looked more closely, I realized he must have been born with a severe disability, as his face wasn’t totally formed. He had eyes but his forehead extended to where his nose should have formed, and he had a very small mouth. He was walking but his feet were tiny – I realized later that he did not have legs and had been fitted with prosthetic legs and feet. This boy had been one of Soc’s patients, and later his mom proudly showed us the legs that Doc Soc had given her son. The four of them walked up to Soc’s coffin and stood there silently offering prayers. I was moved to tears watching them – as I can only imagine the despair and hardships this boy and his family have faced, and how they must have felt to find a doctor who was so compassionate and kind and caring, who made it his mission to help this boy walk. Later on before the family left, Soc’s patient once again went to the coffin to bid a final farewell to Soc.

Soc was brilliant and accomplished, but you’d never know how accomplished he was if you just glanced at him on an average day. He seemed most comfortable in his favorite t-shirts, that almost all had holes, shorts, and flip flops. This is what he wore almost every time I ever saw him around town. He lost many of his teeth some time ago and had dentures but never seemed to want to wear them. His family had a slideshow of photos going during the wake and there is a wonderful photo of Soc grinning widely, without his teeth in, and a quote from him saying, “Be thankful I only lost my teeth! Others have lost their limbs!” That was Soc.

Soc also loved dogs, and every time he came to our house he would often spend a longer time playing with our dogs Harper and Scout, than he would visiting with us. There were several fantastic photos during the slideshow of him playing with the poor dogs on Starfish island in Honda Bay who are all disabled. Some nutrient deficiency, or maybe too much inbreeding, seems to cause these dogs to end up with their back two legs paralyzed. With his love of dogs and life’s mission to help those with disabilities, these dogs must have been very special to him.

I was chatting yesterday with Soc’s sister, Luchie, who is a Christian. She told me she’d invited Soc to many of her church’s events and since Soc would try anything, he was always game. She then started saying, I think, that she wasn’t sure exactly what he did believe with regards to God. She started saying “but…” and trailed off. I finished her sentence for her – “he lived like Jesus did. He was compassionate and kind and selfless and he dedicated his life to helping those who most of society would rather just forget about.” He was such a good man.

The day after Soc died, a colleague of mine visiting from Manila was at the Puerto Princesa airport waiting for her flight back to Manila. She had some time so went to the Vibes massage kiosk in the waiting area, where blind people have been trained to do excellent head, shoulder and back massages for a nominal fee. After her massage she chatted briefly with the blind masseuse she’d had, who immediately started telling her about Doc Soc and how devastated they all were to hear of his death. The masseuse said, “para na siyang tatay sa aming mga may kapansanan dito sa Palawan” (“He was like a father to all of us with disabilities here in Palawan.”)

Thank you for all that you did Soc. You are so greatly missed and you will never ever be forgotten.