for a year because she had been diagnosed with brain cancer. She had already undergone two brain surgeries, two chemotherapies, and two radiation therapies, which were too much for a young girl like her. There were times that my troubled parents were slowly losing hope, but I believed that that was the last phase of her sufferings. This is the reason why my parents often thought that I did not care at all. But the truth was, I was so worried about my sister. I was so worried about her health condition.

As days pass by, my sister’s tumor grew bigger and became a lot worse. It was already all over her face and was already popping out of her nose and her eyes were even popping out, too. It was a very pitiful and painful sight. Whenever we asked her if it hurt, she would always say no, but she would not want anybody to touch it or even talk about it. My parents did not send her to school anymore because they were afraid that her health condition might be the cause of her embarrassment, which would make her health and social condition from worse to worst.

My sister’s doctors were afraid to touch her tumor, and they even advised us to ignore it for a while for it might just be falling off. One afternoon, while my classmates were in our house, her tumor bled profusely. My mother, who was then preparing a sumptuous lunch, panicked and tried very hard to stop the bleeding. I also panicked because I knew that my mother is a strong woman and that she would not panic unless it was an emergency. I tried to help by holding a cloth already drenched with my sister’s blood, but, still, the bleeding did not stop. My parents then decided to rush her to my grandfather’s clinic for her immediate medical attention.

Few minutes later, I called my father and asked him how my sister was. He informed that the bleeding had stopped, but because she bled too much, she fainted and was still unconscious at that time. Since then, Gabby had remained in the hospital, and because of this, my parents decided to bring her to China for her ultimate medical treatment. I knew that it would cost us a lot, but we would do anything and everything just for her, just for my little sister.

On their second night in China, my mother called us, and she was crying desperately on the phone. She was afraid that my sister would not make it. She was very afraid that we would lose my sister. I was afraid for my mother because she was all alone in a foreign land, but I was more than afraid for my sister.

As of this writing, Gabby is still in the intensive care unit, and she needs an emergency surgery because her tumor bled again. From the pictures that my mother sent to us, Gabby looks so frail and so pitiful that it hurts me so much by just seeing her photographs. I am trying to be strong for her and for my parents because I know that it is the only way I could help them. Our faith in God is stronger than ever because when Gabby bled, our prayers helped us a lot to stop it.

Now, I still do not know what will happen to my little sister. I am very scared. I hope that God would not take our little angel from us and that He would perform a miracle for her.

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Three days after Erika wrote this personal essay, Gabby, her little sister, received the greatest miracle of her life, meeting personally her Divine Creator in the heaven