Long time ago, villagers of Ambiong* hosted a festivity which was their way of thanksgiving and at the same time to manifest better life. They invited God to join them and God happily did. They asked God to stop death among them. God replied;
"Since you are my good people, I grant you your wish." And there hasn't been any death among the villagers.
Years have passed, many people reached their sunset ages and no one was dying. However, the villagers were not happy. The very old people were out of control due to dimentia. Some went astray, many did not know what is right or wrong and others even acted like animals. So the villagers told God that they are taking back their previous wish of no one dying. God said;
"I cannot just keep granting whatever you wish for especially when you are changing them and without realizing the consequences of what you are asking. This time, let me assess your request. Before I do that, please bring me guava fruits."
The villagers set off to pick guava fruits. However in their hurry, they did not properly take the fruits. Instead of choosing only the ripe ones, they just broke the branches with fruits of different ages were taken, including flower buds that haven't even formed into a fruit up to overripe ones. When they brought the branches to God, God sighed and said;
"I thought of taking only the rightfully aged ones but you picked regardless of the fruits' age. Now that is how death will come to you."
That is folk tale shared by the priest during his homily in a wake service. Ambiong is the name of the place where the wake was being observed so I bet the priest uses the name of the place wherever the wake is in his different wake services. It was just a tale but it was the very first time that I heard of such so I found it amusing. Was it invented by recent generations or just this priest?
The dead should have turned 47 years old last 05 September but he did not make it and died three days before his birthday. Many were saying that he is too young to go. The priest must have heard this so he related to such folk tale. As he continued the wake service, he related death to what is in the Bible that death comes at any stage of life regardless of age.
In recalling the story, I wondered, how was death before the villagers asked for the absence of it? Was it for aged only or was it for random age too? How would you preceed the story if you are to expand the tale?