For the record:

Who was the poet/writer who said that every death (human) diminishes him? What did he mean "diminishes"? Take your pick and think of so many violent deaths in the Middleast, particularly, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and other Muslim countries. Think of suicide bombers who kill people.

But these two deaths in Laoag, a city in Northern Philippines, saddens me greatly, because it is close to home, along our street. And it occurred in one family that has just built a handsome 4-story home, the tallest along that route. One died of cancer of the lung, a woman who was a childhook acquantance who had five children with his husband of so many years, who tried but failed in the bar examinations, and never attempted again. Two of the children are nurses who work in Britain who may not live in the Philippines but come to visit now and then. They were with their mother when she died at dawn two days ago.

Earlier, the sister of her husband died in the same house. She was one of two twins who had doctorates in a university in Baguio, the country's summer capital.

Women doing their laundry in the Padsan River in Laoag

The other twin died last year of a lingering illness. They never married.

Blood pressure reminder: 134/87 for people at age 60 and above.
When the blogger was younger, the BP was 120/80