If there is anything heaven-like on earth, it is the comfort, love, care provided by members of one's family. We call them loved ones because their entire beings are defined by love. But what had taken place three days before the Chinese New Year in 2014 is beyond one's capacity to imagine. The killing of a wife and her two sons by their very own father, who after setting their family car on fire, shot himself using the same gun he fired at his loved ones was never heard of in history textbooks, nor had it been seen on any Hollywood-produced movies. The brutal family tragedy that befell the family of James Co and Cindy Bunani-Co, father and mother of James Martin (10 years old) and James Andre (5 years old) has shocked the Boholano community. It was a gruesome suicide and murder which had left thousands of Boholanos sleepless.

Not only is the unimaginable end of the Co couple and their kids a talk of the town, the tragedy has raised serious questions as to what really means of the phrase “happy family.” For those who know them best, James and Cindy and their kids were an epitome of an ideal happy family that we all long for, dream of, and hope for. Amid the chaos of this enormously disorganized world compounded by a cornucopia of social ills, it is the thought of a happy family that we want to carry in our bosoms until graveyard. The family, as a basic social unit, is not only a focused of concern by social scientists, but from the very beginning of creation, God had ordained the existence of family as a reflection of the Creator's plan for humanity. God's first activity done in the Garden of Eden was to marry Adam and Eve, considered as our first parents, in order for the two to propagate and live as one fruitful, happy family.

James Co must have had beautiful dreams for his sons and for his wife. The fact that he worked hard so that he could build for his loved ones a comfortable, spacious house in the city, near to a school where his kids would finish elementary education, is a testament to the father's long-term plan for his family. His decision to kill them and burn them to death was not an outburst of careless impulses, but according to gathered reports, it was a premeditated plan, an angle of the shocking killing that has left many in enormous quandary. In the wake of the family tragedy that caught this city and this province by utter bewilderment, there have been more questions than answers. But even answers can be questioned. We do not know where to ask. We do not know where to get answers to our nagging questions. As fellow sojourners in this planet, somehow we feel we deserve to know what had triggered a quiet, loving father to turn to madness and end it all. But at the end of the day, those who have perished on January 28, 2014 at Dampas, this city, deserve to be given their final rest.