EDDIE Garcia was not one to romanticize death.
In our last conversation with him, he told us how he viewed death simply as the end, nothing more.
“Wala na, tapos na, once you’re dead, you’re dead,” he quipped with a smile.
And he was not too preoccupied about it.
He admitted, “Napapa-isip naman tayo tungkol diyan paminsan-minsan pero I’d rather keep myself busy with other things.”
As to what he expects in the great beyond, he deadpanned, “Wala. Hindi ko alam. Hindi ko naman masabi kung ano mayroon sa kabila, hindi pa ako nakakarating doon.”
Asked if he thinks there is a heaven or a hell, he said, “Ang tingin ko diyan, heaven is when you’re happy or when you make someone happy. Ang hell naman ay ‘yung malungkot ka, ‘yung nasaktan ka o nakasakit ka.”
Manoy made clear he is not keen on his family holding a wake for him, if ever.
“Derecho na cremation, ‘yun na, tapos,” he said.
This is exactly what his family is doing.
The awarded actor-director succumbed Thursday afternoon several weeks after he fell into a coma incurring a severe neck fracture after accidentally falling while shooting a scene for an upcoming TV series.
While many now say he shouldn’t have been made to do his own stunts at 90, we recall Manong Eddie telling us how he shunned retirement mainly because he feels he still has what it takes.
“Hindi ko tatanggapin ang proyekto kung hindi ko na kaya magtrabaho, ganun lang ‘yun. Kung sakali hindi ko na kaya ‘yung assignment, that’s when I retire,” he said.
Asked about the greatest lesson life taught him, he said, “that it is what we make it.” (NEIL RAMOS)
