Nephew killed (take three)

LINK2

Ito is the one sitting next to Lolo.

Our nephew was a farmer, and we saw him the day before he was killed out supervising the harvest of rice...

He raises fighting cocks. Cockfighting is his passion. It's a man thing: Gambling, friendship, and the excitement of the fight.

The cockpit (cockfighting arena) was newly built here by a businessman, and there had been rumors of problems in the business deal. My nephew was not involved in this, merely caught in the crossfire because he was talking with the owner's sons when the killers arrived. The wrong place at the wrong time...

Usually this is a contract killing, done by the NPA, but we may never know the truth. After the killing, rumors of thirty killed or injured by twenty gunmen was rampant, but then the report was two vans left, so of course rumors got larger with the telling.

My nephew was transfered to the next town to a neurosurgeon, but the CT scan showed extensive brain damage from a headwound, and said no surgery would help, so he died there and his body was brought back here last night.

His wife works short locum jobs in the US as a nurse, and was on the plane returning here when this happened. So his sisters arranged the body to be embalmed and placed in the home until the funeral. The rest of the relatives are arriving as soon as they can get flights from the US and England. Sad for all of them. This is the second brother to die: his older brother died of a heart attack ten years ago. (sudden cardiac death runs in the family).

So the body is laid out, and family/neighbors are there...Helen the wife is distraught and in shock. Lolo couldn't sleep last night. We visited this morning, and I left him there while we brought our stuff back from the farm. Then I insisted he come home, and put him to bed. We don't need him having a stroke on top of everything else.

The one killed is one of his brother's sons.
When my husband's brother died of a heart attack and left the five kids, my husband had to go to the USA to support the extended family. So he is their "father" in many ways, even though he only sees them on holidays.

It's going to be a long week.

poem LINK
In the midst of life we are in death...