Thanks, Dolphy.

Around 8:30pm last night, Dolphy Quizon, our country’s King of Comedy, passed away. His death really saddened me as I grew up watching Home Along Da Riles. Mang Cosme’s comic facial expressions really thrilled me as a child. He had been in the industry for 64 years and had starred in numerous movies and TV shows.

Screenshots taken just minutes after he died.

Ruffa Gutierrez tweeted about it first but she was bashed by a lot of people who then tried to trend “RIP Ruffa” after. For several minutes, everyone doubted the tweets saying that Twitter killed another celebrity again. It was made official when a breaking news was aired that Zsazsa Padilla and Eric Quizon confirmed that he passed away.

Ruffa deleted her tweet after she was bashed. She then explained herself.

After the news broke in, many people still didn’t believe it was true emphasizing that maybe ANC broadcasted what went viral in Twitter without verification. Celebrities poured their hearts out. Everyone in his family knew he was going to say goodbye anytime soon but they say that they were never ready and until now, Zsazsa still tells him “Good night.” Just like he is still beside her.

I went through a similar experience myself when my grandmother died last year. Though all of us knew that she lived a fulfilled life, moving on was still hard. Strange feelings fill us whenever we look at photos of her even months after she passed away. I didn’t need a simulation to understand our lesson on the stages of grief because I experienced it firsthand.

DABDA. Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. These stages do not happen in the exact order and some people even skip other stages. But I know for sure that the hardest stage is the denial stage. Dolphy’s family and even the whole country may be in this stage right now. As seen on TV, everybody seems to be trying hard to accept that he is now peacefully resting in a golden casket.

But no matter how long it takes, we all have no choice but to accept the loss. As what Zsazsa had said, it will only get harder by the minute. Yet I know that she’ll get there.