I walked through Nasugbu, my hometown. I passed the sari-sari store, the school, the plaza. The map of my life was the same, but the meaning had changed. These places were no longer haunted by loss; they were sanctified by memory.
They were the places where I had learned about courage, about friendship, about love that could transcend even death.
The streets were just streets again, but I was not just JM anymore. I was a person who had loved a ghost, and in doing so, had found himself.