10th death anniversary of Francis M commemorated

Pia described the last seven months that they spent together with Francis as a “whirlwind of confinements and discharges and treatments and test, after test.” (File photo: piamagalona/Instagram)

As the Catholic Church marks the start of the Lent on Wednesday, March 6, Pia Magalona also commemorated the death anniversary of her husband, “Master Rapper” Francis Magalona (or Francis M), who died in March 2009.

In her Instagram post, Pia recalled the moment she learned that Francis had acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), a type of cancer wherein “the bone marrow makes abnormal myeloblasts (a type of white blood cell), red blood cells, or platelets,” according to the National Cancer Institute.

“I remember distinctly that we were both lying in his hospital bed, watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics, when a doctor came by and asked to speak to me in the hallway,” Francis’s widow said.

Pia shared she was “ok” and even had a “smile” on her face because the doctor was able to find out the reason why her husband was having daily fever and was lightheaded. But when the doctor revealed that Francis has cancer, the reaction she had back then was: “Oh… That was pretty bad news.”

The next thing she did, Pia said, was to go back to the room along with the doctor and tell her husband about his condition.

She then called their children — Unna, Nicolo, Maxene, Francis Jr., Saab, Arkin, Elmo, and Clara — “one at a time from eldest to youngest.

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“I cried with them with each and every revelation, answering the same questions eight times over,” she said.

Pia described the last seven months that they spent together with Francis as a “whirlwind of confinements and discharges and treatments and test, after test.”

“Faith is really all we ever had, and still have for those he left behind,” she wrote.

The Filipino rapper’s widow also took the opportunity to thank those people who gave them financial and spiritual support all throughout their “Happy Battle” journey.

Francis M was the son of Philippine film icons Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran. He was the voice behind the famous songs “Mga Kababayan Ko,” “Kaleidoscope World,” and “Ito Ang Gusto Ko,” among others.

He was awarded the posthumous Presidential Medal of Merit by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for “his musical and artistic brilliance, his deep faith in the Filipino and his sense of national pride that continue to inspire us.”