The Tale of The Woman Across Tambacan Bridge

Abby was my bestfriend’s aunt.  They originally came from Manila and transferred in Iligan City for good.  Abby was sixteen and planned to marry Danilo who was a neighbor’s son.   She had an old wooden trunk called ba-ul where she kept all the things she collected like embroidered clothes, old coins, pictures, and anything like that. 

When Abby and Danilo got married, she was the happiest bride that my bestfriend Cathy ever saw.  Amidst the laughter and merry making of Danilo and Abby's wedding, a silent heart was grieving.  Abby's old flame, Rolando, cannot accept the fact that Abby was getting married to another man.  Danilo was a security guard but he worked on a day shift and came home around twilight.  They did not have much and their house was small but Abby kept it neat as a pin. 

Abby visited Cathy and her mother’s place one day with her face so radiant.  She said she had the most wonderful news and that she was going to have a baby.  She stayed at the place the whole day asking Cathy’s mother everything about babies.  

Cathy and her mother used to visit Abby often to help her with her daily chores.  Cathy’s mother, after their mother left them, had helped raised Abby and so she was more like a daughter than a sister to her.  When she was on her sixth month, she had already accumulated quite a few baby items which she kept in her ba-ul.  She was very excited.

One day when Cathy and her mother visited Abby, she stared blankly in the wall.  She told Cathy’s mother that if she died in childbirth she wanted her to raise her baby and to keep her ba-ul for the baby.  Cathy’s mother was shocked but Abby persisted.  Before they left, Abby hugged them so tightly.  She was now all by herself.  Lightning flashed and dark clouds rolled over.  Gusts of wind were bending the trees and big drops of rain started to fall.  When they were nearly home there was a heavy downpour.  The thunderstorm was scary.  They barely made it through the door and their clothes were dripping wet.  It was already dark when the storm subsided.  They cooked dinner and stayed at the veranda after to wait for Cathy’s father to come home.         

At about 12:15 a.m. while at the veranda, Cathy and her mother saw someone coming.  They could see a faint outline even though it was foggy.  They saw a woman came up the far side of the footbridge and stopped.  She stood there for a long time and held her hand up as if to wave goodbye. The sight gave them cold chills and shivers over their neck and arms.  They thought it looked like Abby but felt like she was visiting from beyond. 

The next morning they were awakened by a loud pounding on their front door.  Cathy’s father opened the door when he saw Danilo stumbled through the door carrying Abby’s lifeless body.  He said that he came home last night and Abby was not there.  He thought she was spending the night with them because of the storm.  He got up this morning to come to their place and to pick Abby when he found her lifeless body lying beside the footbridge.  She must have tried to make it to their house.

After Abby's death they told Danilo about the woman across the footbridge.  Cathy and her mother were sure that it was Abby’s spirit wandering around.  Cathy’s mother had been crying days after the incident.  She had been blaming herself and was feeling guilty over leaving Abby alone on that day.  They missed her terribly.

One night while they were waiting on the veranda for her father, Cathy was feeling sleepy when she saw a glimpse of the woman again slowly moving along the path to the bridge.  She was wearing a white dress and she paused at the end of the bridge.  Then she slowly moved and went to the tree facing the veranda and then she disappeared.  A tingling sensation crept over their whole body.  Cathy and her mother knew it was Abby.  She must have been trying to tell something.

The next day they went to visit Danilo.  Cathy’s mother told him about what they saw the last night and he was stunned about it.  Cathy’s mother asked Danilo if they could look through her things.  When Cathy’s mother checked the ba-ul she noticed that the trunk was slightly opened and when she opened it she found that all the baby clothes were scattered.  Her mother angrily asked Danilo who had been in the trunk but he did not know.  While she was straightening and putting everything in place, a small pink book fell.  It was a diary.  Cathy’s mother was scanning through the pages when the last page caught her eye.  

Alam kong hindi ko na masisilayan pa ang aking sanggol dahil sa mga panaginip ko nagsasabing iiwan ko na ang mundong ito. 
Danilo alam mong mahal na mahal kita ngunit kailangan na kitang iiwan.
Kung sino man ang makakabasa nito wag kayong magdadalamhati para sa akin dahil alam ko at nakikita kong tayong lahat ay magkakasama din sa darating na panahon.

Abby wrote that she knew she would never hold her newborn.  Her dreams revealed where she would be.  She was telling that if anybody would read it not to grieve for her for one day they will all be together. 

When I asked Cathy how Abby knew about her death, she said they did not know how.  But she would never forget that even today, after twenty seven years, she could still close her eyes and see her coming across the footbridge.     

A neighbor said that she saw Rolando on that same day also running to take shelter from the rain at the same Sari-Sari store she went to.  It was raining so hard so she did not have time to chat with Rolando.  On her way back she saw Abby hurrying across the bridge and that was the last time that she saw Abby alive ...