Possession Obsession

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These past two months was a hectic time for me. Work was uncommonly stressful, I got sick, the kids took turns getting sick, our little household had a yaya turnover, my finances took a nose dive—all upheavals and high drama. For some days there, I felt like I was hanging on by a thread, all the while watching the strands slowly unravel.

I scrambled to resolve all those things, and while some of these predicaments miraculously resolved themselves (optimists can will things into becoming), it was the yaya situation that really did me in. Backgrounder: I have two rambunctious boys, aged 3 and 1. Each of them has a yaya, since I am a working mom and I know toddlers are not to be trifled with.

Yaya Ying is Jethro’s yaya; she has a tiny frame, arched brows, and is a haughty mestiza. Jeremy’s  Yaya Viv is 38 years old, big boned with wavy hair and a strong grip. In her wake faucets break off, kitchen knives chip, hinges hang loose. Despite this shortcoming though, she is reasonably efficient, she does not shy away from the multitude of house chores and is patient with Jeremy most of the time.

But one night, Yaya Viv woke me up with frantic knocks on my bedroom door. I rushed to open it, and there she stood, her eyes wild, clutching her blanket. She said she thinks she’s being possessed. Not dreaming, not having a nightmare, but possessed. Okaaay. A thousand alarm bells went off in my head, all chiming, ‘psy-cho, psy-cho, psy-cho, psy-cho.’ Yaya Viv said she heard strange voices coming out of her mouth—first the voice of a man, then a little girl's, then an old woman's. She mumbled something about a black spirit hovering in the ceiling of her room, which is down the short hall, from the bedroom where the kids, Yaya Ying, and I slept.

I quickly analyze this situation: it is 2 in the morning; I have two young kids and an elderly yaya. God, we are no match for this Amazon! What if, in her ‘possessed’ state she strangles us all to death? Yaya Ying, who is way older (but who stopped counting at age 36) offers to ‘pray over’ Yaya Viv, so that the black spirit won’t come back. An exorcism, under my own house, no less. I say OK, go ahead with the pray over, and they go to the other room.

I sit on my bed next to my sleeping son, watching the baby curled up in his crib across the room. My heart still hasn’t slowed down, and malevolent scenarios would not stop playing in my mind’s eye. Why do these things happen to me? I’m a single parent trying my darndest to raise two kids, why the hell should I have to contend with Linda Blair?

A few minutes later, I check on the two yayas and Yaya Viv says the prayers are helping, but that the spirit was still in the room. I sigh. My instinct tells me I better not let this woman out of my sight if I hope to survive this night. Against my will I tell her she should sleep with us in my bedroom so that we can look after her. She agrees, almost too readily, I think.

She maneuvers her mattress into the room, and I lock the door. As we re-arrange crib and beddings to accommodate her, Yaya Viv tells me that the black spirit is now outside the door, but that it can’t get in. Great. No going to the bathroom for me, then. I tell them to pray again, and we all settle down to sleep. I was glad the boys just snored blissfully through out all this drama. The yayas were fast asleep in a few minutes, Yaya Viv snoring loudly, black spirit be damned. I, however, fearing a re-issue of The Exorcist, did not get a wink of sleep until morning.

And that’s why this month, on top of everything else, I am training two new replacement yayas, both age 18, armed with with police clearances, certifiably sane, and most importantly—with no history of demonic possession.
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Comments

[PixelPuta (the real one)]

Posted by: PixelPuta | 15 December 2005 at 03:52 PM

"LeeSan! Buhi man gid gali si Etta! Regards lang and post bi pics sang dinner in your yahoogroups. I'll be there this weekend na, hope we can get together during the vacation!"

Hey! I didn't post this! Weird....

[melissa]

The bee is on holiday! Can't resist a quick log in though. Happy Holidays beautiful people!

Kisses to Kaydee too! :D

[kaydee]

merry christmas! enjoy the holidays! =)

*mwah mwah*

[Dean]

Merry Christmas, Melissa!

[banzai cat]

You seem to lead a stranger life than the books I read, bee girl. ;-)

[girl in peacepond]

had a breakdown eons ago - and my family thought i was possessed by unseen demons! they called 3 burly men to hold me down, a priest to pray over me and prayed the rosary by my side the whole night. after mooning over the events and my uncolored unsatisfied life, i packed my things and promptly moved to the big city. turned out - there were more demons there but they were real and a lot of them wore high heels and corporate suits!

[PixelPuta]

hmmm... Kinda reminds me of that time my parents sent me to Sugod coz they thought I was possessed or something... Turns out Multiple Personality Disorder pala…. :D

[the bee]

LeeSan! Buhi man gid gali si Etta! Regards lang and post bi pics sang dinner in your yahoogroups. I'll be there this weekend na, hope we can get together during the vacation!

[melissa]

Gi, I've had lots of good and bad yaya/helper experiences, but for out-there, bizarro experiences, this one takes the cake! It's become funny in retrospect, though.

Isko: last I heard, she's gone back to her hometown, I'm just thankful she did not hurt my boys under the guise of being Linda.

[lee]

hello. linda blairwitch project. etta bonache is here in bacolod after years of being lost. we will have dinner at rc's resto

[isko]

My god Meli, what a hellish night that was. I hope you and your kids are doing fine now. Obviously, Yaya Viv had schizophrenic relapse - thus the recuurence visual and auditory hallucinations. This diagnosis is usually guised under the labels of demonic possessions/exorcisms. Meli, do not take this exacerbation lightly. It is good they are out of your house. The least you could do for her is make a referal to see a psychiatrist, who could prescribe her the appropriate and much-needed medications. Good luck and God bless.

[Gigi]

M!!! I was freaking out the entire time I was reading your post. I've always known you were a strong person to begin with, now I know for sure you are practically invincible!

The other day a friend of mine and I were talking about how it would be great if we had a live-in helper to have our meals ready when we get home from work, do the laundry and put them away, and clean the house. We were talking about how envious we were of our friends back home who do have such help and seem to have more of a life than we do here.

But envious I am no longer.

[melissa]

Hi wasabi gurl. Yaya Viv is ilongga also, from my mother's hometown. I got the chills that night, worrying about her. I think it was more of a nervous breakdown than a 'possession,' maybe she was missing home. She told me the next day she had a 'possession' months before, and the town pastor had to do an exorcism to get the male demon out. Imagine! They never tell you things like this during the initial interviews, grr.

Another 'demonic' episode happened a week later, when she said she woke up in the middle of the night and saw her body had grown to 'Dabiana proportions' (her words), arms and legs like huge balloons. She said she couldn't move and that the black spirit was laughing at her. I ignored this, and for a while the possessions stopped.

By this time I was already asking the folks in Negros to find me two new yayas. The older one, Yaya Ying had airs of a majordoma, grabe it was as though she was the amo, she bossed Yaya Viv around and made decisions for me without consulting. Whooo yaya blues, what can I say.

The two new ones seem promising, no strange occurences at home as yet! Keeping my fingers crossed.

[wasabi1me]

I hope you get to sort everything out. I am also in a yaya quandary, whether to look for a younger one who can keep up with my 2 year old or stick with the old one (as in pushing 50) who has major loyalty points (been with family for 20+ years) and loves my daughter to bits, but annoys the hell out of me. It's Christmas and I would really want to give my help some bonus but don't have the budget for it, much less for a lot of other things.

[wasabi1me]

What a funny story. And how absolutely dreadful! Sorry not trying to be amused at your expense. I suppose Yaya Viv is Pinay. Maybe she's from Antique? You are a kind soul for letting her sleep with you. I'm not sure if I would do the same. Maybe I would have brought her to the nearest place she could find shelter for the night. The church, perhaps. The thought of having Linda Blair in the same room with me. Di kaya ng powers ko 'yun!