It's a gray day in September and yet again I have to put on a white blouse and my good pearls and drive to Sanctuario de San Antonio for a wake. Early Tuesday morning I woke up to learn about the senseless shooting and tragic death of film critic Alexis Tioseco and his girlfriend Nika Bohinc in their house on Times Street in Quezon City. Today I'm going to pay my respects.

I meet Carlos Celdran there and we see Quark Henares inside the small chapel. Two coffins are laid out in front and I am suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of loss that I cannot logically explain. I glance at Quark who is keeping it together for his friend; I can tell he hasn't slept. The family of Alexis arrives and we clear out of the chapel so they can have their time alone with the dead.   I can only imagine the depth of their bereavement.

The violence of the crime against Alexis and Nika seems almost unreal, as if in some awful massacre movie. Times Street is not a rough neighborhood at all; Cory Aquino lived on that street, too. Apparently the new maid let the robbers inside the house. They were looting the house when Alexis and Nika walked in. Quark tells me when the authorities arrived they didn't have body bags, they literally had to procure blankets for the bodies. At one point, they were asking for packing tape.