Ruby mourns 9th fallen COVID-19 front-liner—doctor sister
Ruby Rodriguez (left) with sister Dr. Sally Gatchalian
“Be at peace. Don’t worry about us anymore. Have fun in heaven! Love you so much!”
Thus said television host-comedian Ruby Rodriguez in her tribute to her elder sister, Philippine Pediatric Society president Sally Gatchalian, who died on March 26 after battling COVID-19.
In an Instagram post, Rodriguez posted a family photo from Christmas last year, and reminisced about happy moments with the fallen frontliner, who
also served as the assistant director at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.
“We will only remember you with happy memories: Laughing and sleeping; your Johnson outfits and all;how you loved bling-bling; your coiffed
hair every day, your K-drama addiction. (You got me hooked, too.) I will make you kwento what I have seen last,” she said.
“Our Sunday lunches, our ‘bonding trips’ that only you and I do, since our siblings are in the United States. A lot of happy and fond memories! I love you so much, my big sister. Smile!” Rodriguez said. “Say hi to mom and dad.”
Dr. Gatchalian is reportedly the ninth doctor to have succumbed to COVID-19.
Rodriguez first confirmed on March 21 that her sister had been confined and that she was “weak and stable,” but still “fighting.” —ALLAN POLICARPIO
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