The Woman with the Pearl Earrings.

As far as I can recall, my Mom has been a staple of Divisoria. She buys her fruits there before going home to the province. She also buys garments for her muse and escort and other stuff needed by their Department in Divisoria. She knows the area at the back of her head.

For the first time in all those Divisoria trips, she got robbed tonight. Someone stood at her back, and suddenly held her ears and grabbed her pearl earrings. Her right ear bled. 

The pair was part of a gift set of jewelry from Dad for their 25^th anniversary.

“Why did you not remove it before going to Divisoria,” I asked her when she arrived home. She told me she totally forgot. She usually goes there without any jewelry, sans her rosary ring.

She was already on her way home when it happened. She was riding a jeepney from Divisoria to Gastambide to get off at Recto and ride the LRT going to Makati. The traffic was horrible so she decided to walk a stretch going to Recto. The problem was, there was an area where she had to walk on the foot bridge.

“It was already 8PM when it happened,” she narrated. “Actually, I saw a girl crying at the other end of the footbridge. Someone put a knife at her and got all of her belongings. She does not even have fare going home so I gave her a hundred.”

“It could have been me though,” telling me in between sips of water. “I was supposed to go before her on the footbridge, but the sirens from the firemen’s truck kept me preoccupied. I was busily looking at the area where they were going,” 

When the robber took her earrings, she told me she blacked out. It’s as if a surge of electricity got into her and she can’t move. When her senses came back, she wanted to run after the robber. An elderly lady held her hand and told her, “Wag mong habulin. Ikamamatay mo yan.” It was an act of divine intervention.

She realized that amidst all the sentimental value attached to the earrings, her life is more important than the shiny golden pearls. Or any piece of jewelry for that matter.

She went down the footbridge with the elderly woman who was en route Cubao. They talked about the entire incident and bid farewell when she had to go to Doroteo Jose to ride the LRT.

She reached home as if nothing has happened. We talked about the incident and I had to clean her wounds to sanitize her right ear. We went to a nearby clinic to have it checked for infection, but the Doctor told us that the right ear was fine.

***

More than the earrings, there is little value to life nowadays. We hear stories of deaths and killings every day and somehow these make us numb. We have been desensitized by the magnitude of disaster and events, that things such as robbery and theft are viewed as ordinary or petty. Unless, the act was heinous or a relative or friend was the victim, many people oftentimes dismiss these events as trivial.