The Itinerants Path

That was the words of Brother Tim when he was hospitalized at San Pedro Hospital in Davao City last summer; a week after the 2008 holy week. I spent three days in the hospital taking care of him and his needs and also helping his nieces to look after him.

Holy week of 2008 and that was Good Friday, he wasn’t able to join with the Brothers during the Way of the Cross, one of the famous devotions of the Catholic Filipinos. He experienced a mild stroke and quickly brought by the Brother Provincial to the Hospital in Malaybalay then to Davao City.

This Holy Week, which the Brothers have the annual retreat at JRH Retreat House in Malabalay, Brother Tim was not around for he was admitted at the hospital in Gen. Santos City. The Brothers never forgot to include him in the prayers while Br. Manny monitored the situation of Br. Tim through Br. Ador and staff at the Province Center. We were all saddened during the supper time, it was Good Friday, when the Brother Provincial announced to everybody that Br. Tim had just passed away. Silence was observed since all the Brothers seemed to be prepared already to hear about Brother Tim’s departure.

Reflecting on my experiences when I was with him, his words, “Paribod na kita”  which means, “Let us go home” was not only words of asking those who were taking care of him to go home to the Provincial House. but also to go back to our source of life for the days are getting over. I was able to sense his feeling of boredom and pain, of being held on the bed having the difficulty of moving his body. For three days, I also struggled to see myself as the closest person to Brother Tim. When my father was on his deathbed, I never experienced looking after his needs except to this old Brother entrusted to me even just for few days. It was not my first experience of looking after a dying person.

One of the Novitiate experiences, perhaps, that prepared me to encounter such situations, was my once-a-week exposure to Bahay Maria in Cotabato City. I also witnessed how a dying old man experienced while struggling to live up to his last breath. But the saddest memory about that man was… he is an abandoned father by his wife and children. He was never accepted again by his own family even when he died. The nuns buried him.

Brother Tim was a different one, I can say that the Brothers never abandoned him. His immediate relatives took care of him when he was still in the hospital. The sick or suffering brother becomes the source of blessing to the community as they take care of him; as the Brothers’ Constitution and Statute says. Indeed, Brother Tim somehow show example to other Brothers to be faithful to God even in times of difficulties and near death situations.

Here are some facts about Brother Tim…

Family Name: CABANGON
First Name: TIMOTEO (Antonio)
Middle Name: MORALES
Birthday: September 2, 1932
Birth

Place: Panganiban, Catanduanes
Dialects: Bicolano, Tagalog
No. Siblings: 10/12

Secular Education:
-Elementary: Panganiban Elem. School, 1950  High School: NDM Boys’ Dept., 1954
-College: BSE= NDDC, Gen. Santos City, 1974  Graduate Studies:
Religious Formation:
-Postulancy: St. Joseph, Tyngsboro, MA, 1955  Novitiate: St. Joseph, Tyngsboro, MA, 1956-7
-Scholasticate: Marist College, P’keepsie, NY, 1957-60  Habit-taking: July 26, 1956, Tyngsboro, MA, USA
-First Vows: July 26, 1957, Tyngsboro, MA, USA  Perpetual Vows: July 28, 1962, Tamontaka
Renewal Courses:
2nd Novitiate: Fribourg, Switzerland, 1970   3rd Age: Manziana, Rome, 1998
Milestones:
25th Silver Jubilee: 1981
50th Golden Jubilee: July 29, 2006, Province Center, Lagao

-Death: April 10, 2009 Cause of death: complications brought about by stroke & Alzheimer’s disease at GS Doctors’ Hospital, Gen. Santos City

Source: FMS-Philippine Province Archives

Thanks to Brother Demosthenes for supplying me this basic info about Brother Tim. The photo I included here was taken last July 2008. I was able to take his picture right after the Morning Eucharist at the nearby Parish Church.

Rest in peace, Brother Tim. May Mary our Good Mother and Marcellin our father bring you to the bossom of our Savior…

On this day..

• Summer Vocation Workshop Time - 2008