In my life, even when bad things happen, I still try to find something good in it.
Yesterday, there was an unfortunate incident that happened at our house.
At home, I usually spend time outside the bedroom so I won’t disturb my daughter’s sleep in case I make noise.
Around 5 pm, I decided to enter our room and rest, as I usually do every day. When it’s 5 pm, I go inside to relax.
I was arranging my laptop and cables to bring into the bedroom when I suddenly heard my wife scream and call me, so I quickly peeked into the room.
I asked, 'Why?' She said, 'I heard a noise. I thought you slipped.' I said, 'No.' Then, just a few seconds later, I heard the noise too, and suddenly, the ceiling in our room collapsed.
Only half of the ceiling fell, the frame didn’t collapse. What fell was the gypsum board attached to it.
I immediately ran to my wife and child’s side. Thankfully, they weren’t under the part where the ceiling fell, as they were in the safe area.
I asked them to step outside because the room became very dusty due to the accumulated dust in the ceiling and from the gypsum board itself.
By the way, the gypsum board is a material that I’d describe as being like light cement. It doesn’t burn, but it breaks easily, unlike plywood.
So, there were a lot of broken pieces of gypsum board on the floor. As I was removing them, I realized they were quite heavy, even in pieces.
While cleaning it up, I felt sad because, of course, our ceiling was damaged. I also thought about how this would be another expense for us this month.
But I was very thankful to God that I hadn’t gone inside yet and wasn’t sitting at my table inside the bedroom when it happened. The spot where the gypsum board fell is where I usually set up my table in the bedroom.
But what I’m most thankful for is that my daughter wasn’t in her baby walker inside the bedroom at the time. They were already in a safe spot before it fell.
Last night, I moved our bed to the side where the ceiling didn’t fall. Since only half of the ceiling collapsed, for safety, it’s better to stay in the spot where nothing can fall on us.
Even though the ceiling fell and I was exhausted from cleaning up all the mess, and I know this will be an added expense for this month, in the end, when I was a bit more relaxed, I thought it was good that I wasn’t in that spot when it collapsed.
That part of the ceiling was bound to fall eventually because our house is old, and there was no way to stop it. I’m just happy that the timing of the collapse was right because if I had been there, I think I would have gotten hurt. And since my laptop was on that table, the expenses could have been bigger if it got damaged.
But of course, I’m most thankful to God because my baby girl and wife weren’t in that spot.