By Jodi Bustos
Eagle News Service
(Eagle News) — The remains of Filipina actress, Isabel Granada, arrived in the Philippines from Doha, Qatar today, Thursday.
They arrived via Philippine Airlines flight PR 685.
Earlier, her cousin, Joseph Rivera who was also in Qatar with Granada’s partner, Arnel Cowley, said they were processing the papers needed to repatriate her remains.
Ten days after she suffered a brain hemorrhage due to aneurysm, Granada, 41, passed away at the Hamad General Hospital in Doha on November 4, around 11 p.m. Manila time, shortly after she was pronounced ‘brain dead’ on Nov. 1, 2017.
Isabel opts for cremation
Cowley said they were planning to cremate Granada’s remains as this what she requested when she was still alive.
He recalled her comment during a friend’s wake in Australia.
However, Cowley added it was Isabel’s mother, Isabella “Mama Guapa” Granada, who will ultimately decide if the remains of her only child will be cremated or not.
Before Mama Guapa, Cowley and Hubert, Isabel’s son with her first husband Geryk Genasky Aguas, boarded the flight back to Manila on Nov. 5, they announced that the plan was to hold a wake for the actress at Santuario de San Jose in Greenhills, San Juan City.
This would be for public viewing, they said.
Cremation will be held on Sunday, Nov. 12.
Showbiz Industry pays tribute and farewell messages
“It is with great sadness that my wife Isabel Granada has peacefully passed here in Doha Qatar,” Cowley wrote on his Facebook account on Sunday midnight.
Soon after his announcement, countless messages of grief and sadness from the public and famous personalities flooded social media.
Some reminisced their memories with Granada on Instagram, while some posted memorials and farewell messages on Twitter.
Sean Lim, director of ‘Xenoa’, a sci-fi action film which starred Granada, shared how the actress holds a special place in their hearts.
Lovi Poe also shared a throwback photo with Granada on her Instagram account.
Actor/Comedian Paolo Ballesteros and singer Janno Gibbs posted “In Memoriam” photos of the actress on Twitter and Instagram respectively.
Here are some farewell messages posted by other personalities via Facebook and Twitter:
Lea Salonga
Claudine Barretto
Assunta de Rossi
Camille Prats
Christine Babao
Darla Sauler
Jim Paredes
Aneurysm, a silent killer
Granada, an epitome of health and fitness, failed to escape the silent killer–aneurysm.
On October 25, Granada felt dizzy and fainted during a fan meet and greet in Doha, Qatar where she was immediately rushed to a hospital.
Cowley said she suffered a “brain hemorrhage which indicates an aneurysm and in turn affected her heart.”
Granada was in a state of comatose and was only sustained by life support since Day 1.
According to her family, they never suspected that the actress would go away so soon because she was healthy.
But they said she would sometimes complain of dizziness and headache.
The family thought it was just a simple migraine.
An aneurysm is a disease of the aorta, one of the reasons behind cardiac arrest worldwide.
It is a widening, bulging, or ballooning out of a portion of the aorta, that usually occurs where there is a weak spot in the aortic wall.
This may be inherited or can be caused by environmental factors.
In the case of Granada, her aneurysm might have been genetically inherited since her father, Humberto Granada, also succumbed to an aneurysm and died in 1995.
Know more about Aneurysm and its symptoms.
(Jodi Bustos, Eagle News Service)