I will not forget that date. Wednesday, June 12, 1991. Mt Pinatubo which has been sleeping in the last 630 years was suddenly awakened and engrily erupted, in time with the celebration of the 93rd Independence Day . The occasion was dubbed Ash Wednesday as the volcano started spewing tons of ashes and sulfuric fumes which darkened the skies all over Zambales and the neighboring communities.
On June 15, 1991, eve of Father's Day, night came early in Metro Manila at around 3:00 p.m. It was pitch dark and people wondered if it was due to the rain clouds spawned by a typhoon or the ash falls from the erupting Mt. Pinatubo. It turned out to be the horrible combination of both that triggered fears in the hearts of the people who scurried home to be with their love ones.
At around 5:30 p.m. it rained grayish sandy ash all over Metro Manila. The ashes were itchy to the skin and irritating to the eyes. I quickly gathered a handful into a small glass container for souvenir.
God says men are dusts and to dusts all men shall return. In the handful that I scooped from our backyard, I imagined how many great men and women as well as charlatans who lived a long time ago were represented in my ash souvenir.
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