The man who saved my life was MR. LEON NIBAL.
I was walking across Aurora Boulevard on a rainy evening many years ago when the accident happened.

THE MAN WHO SAVED MY LIFE



The man who saved my life was MR. LEON NIBAL.

I was walking across Aurora Boulevard on a rainy evening many years ago when the accident happened.

The Ford delivery van hit me with a force so strong that I somersaulted and landed on the cement seven meters away. The delivery van did not stop. It just hit me. And ran away. I was left bleeding, shattered, unconscious.

Those who saw the accident turned around and walked away. Except for one man. LEON NIBAL.

From a distance he saw everything. approached my bleeding body. Is this poor man dead? Or alive. He held my left hand. He took my pulse. NOTHING. There was absolutely NO pulsebeat.

Poor, poor man. Unconscious. Broken. Bleeding profusely. No pulsebeat. He needs help. It is my duty to help. He must be brought to the nearest hospital. Please, Sirs… please help me lift him up. To that jeepney… let us bring him to the hospital… maybe… maybe we can still save his life!. BUT no one, not a single one approached to help. Everybody turned around. And walked away. Leon Nibal was left alone with me. He tried to move me, but I was too heavy. Yet I had to be rushed to the hospital.

How sad..... I had spent my whole life helping people..... and now when I desperately needed help, no one helped me..... No one..... Except LEON NIBAL

Leon Nibal went knocking from house to house… asking for help… to lift me to the jeepney and take me to the hospital. After several tries he finally found a husband and a wife who were kind enough to help.

The three of them lifted my bleeding, heavy body to a jeepney, and rushed me to the UERM hospital.

LEON NIBAL saved my life, not knowing who I was, not knowing I am a Priest.

Later on, he called up the hospital “Hello? UERM Hospital? What happened to the man I brought to the Emergency Room last night? Is he, is he still..... alive?” “Which one?” What was his name?” “I do not know his name but he was big and tall and heavy.” “ Oh, you mean the Priest?” “What?” he asked, “was he a Priest?” “Yes. He is a Priest. Fr. Arsenio Jesena, S.J… He is still alive. But in coma.”

Several days later, LEON NIBAL, who works in a Bodega, went back to the hospital after Sunday Mass, bringing with him his little daughter Lara, whose fourth birthday it was… but they were not able to see me. I was in the Operating Room.

He tried to visit me again… in the hospital, and in Xavier House, but he never was successful. For the next 13 years I did not see him, the man who saved
my life.

Thirteen years later, by chance (it seems) I found an old notebook with the name and address of the man who saved my life. Immediately I wrote him, and asked him to get in touch with me. One week later I got a phone call him. I was so excited! I was actually talking to him! After 13 years of trying to find him, I could now meet him and his family! Had LEON NIBAL abandoned me and walked away that rainy night in June, I would have hemorrhaged to death… Arsenio C. Jesena, S. J. would have died 18 long years ago!

And so on December 3,1995, I went to Sampaloc, to the little apartment in 59-D Vicente G. Cruz St.. where Mr. LEON NIBAL resides with his wife, ZENAIDA, a public school teacher, and their children: PATTY, ADJIE, and LARA. The youngest, ANGELO PAOLO, 13 years old, was still in the womb when my accident happened, and he was born on Sept. 14 – my birthday.

I was so deliriously happy. For at long last… After 13 long years, I met the family to whom I owe my life!

Later that day, when I said Mass in Mary the Queen Church, I told my Sunday congregation about the man who saved my life. My parishioners were really touched by the story. They felt the happiness I was feeling. And they all stood up and clapped after the sermon.

BUT a little past midnight, I got a phone call from Adjie Nibal… her brother Paolo Angelo had to be rushed to the hospital. He had dengue fever. Two hours after that phone call, Paolo Angelo was dead. Dead from dengue hemorrhagic fever. That night, I went to visit the funeral wake of Paolo Angelo Nibal.

His father Leon, his mother Zeny, and his sisters Patty, Adjie and Lara were all crying.

Deep, painful, indescribable crying. “Please help me Father,” Leon pleaded, “I cannot understand what is happening.”

Neither could I.

The wise, loving God who had saved my life with the help of Mr. Leon Nibal had just suddenly taken away the life of Paolo Angelo, the loving gift, the beloved son God had given the Nibal family on my birthday.

I do not know, I do not presume to know the mystery of God’s salvific providence. The Lord gives. The Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord .

Today , May 8, the birthday of the man who saved my life, I think of him.....

The extraordinary thing about LEON NIBAL is that he is very ordinary.

Ordinary in his hungers.
Ordinary in his talents.
Ordinary in his pains.

But through it all, there is a serene dignity, a generous courage, a nobility of character that makes him a Christ-figure in his simple milieu.

Searching to know, and to do the will of God… in the streets of Sampaloc. He is a man who works hard, a man who loves his family and serves his country and
his people..... in very ordinary ways.

I am very fortunate that he was there to save my life. And more fortunate that he has become my friend.

Happy Birthday, Leon Nibal… the man who saved my life. To you I will forever be grateful.


Your friend,

Fr. Juni Jesena, S. J.