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His essays and lectures gain widespread acclaim, yet no one realizes that with each word he writes, he is losing his connection to language.

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The angel represents fate, a force that cannot be escaped.

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Vida—the name that stayed with him, even after all else was forgotten.

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Memory loss, whether caused by age or emotional burden, reminds us how fragile communication and identity can be.

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Fix You by Coldplay                                                                                         A haunting melody that captures the quiet desperation of trying to mend what’s already fading—whether it’s love, memory, or oneself.

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Professor Quemada’s Last Words” reveals the fragility of words and memories. It reminds readers how easily we take for granted the ability to speak, to love, and to share our stories. In the end, the narrative shows that when all else fades, it is the emotions that endure beyond language.

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“And then one morning he woke up with the horrifying realization that he couldn’t remember his name.”

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“Vida.”

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The loss of language is the loss of life itself--as professor Quemada put it.

Looking back on the story by Eric Gamalinda it paints a vivid picture for the readers to imagine how a man's descent into the fragility of age devoured his life into dedicating his final days immortalising himself in his passion for the academe. One could look at it straight-on and view it as a man's last chance at life knowing that death is near.

Or maybe it's the exact opposite. Perhaps it is the tragedy of the trepidation that comes with the continuous marching of death that professor Quemada wants to avoid---to escape--to use his captivating words so that his life would continue in the minds of others. That is how I view professor Quemada's words... a futile attempt at a cry for help.

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Professor Quemada during his younger years.

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Professor Quemada's point of view when the angel appears before him.

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one of the poem entries that Professor Quemada wrote for Vida.

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Professor Quemada's emotions put into art — unrequited love.

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"Tell me," he said. "What was she called?" and the angel said, "Vida."

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Louis Wain was an artist whose muse were mainly cats. He had schizophrenia and thus, as he grew older, would slowly depict that in his paintings. Trying his hardest to depict what cats were before ultimately turning abstract.

I believe this to be a parallel to the deterioration of professor Quemada's language ability. The more words he uses, the more his reality becomes oblique and close to ending.

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"Spaces between us keep getting deeper, it's harder to reach you, even though I tried."

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"The professor looked up at the sky and saw two moons..."

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"Theodor," the professor said. "Theodor, Theodor." And he kept saying the name until it was no more than an echo in his mind. 

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Being forgotten is the central theme in this entire story. Professor Quemada, I feel, holds many feelings and emotions when it comes to the inevitability of death and the passage of time so far that our names will be forgotten.

It's a beautiful attempt at living when professor Quemada tirelessly preserves his genius through pages of paper, which makes it all the more painful when even his own name is forgotten.

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Acceptance of death and our inevitable fate.

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Acceptance of death and our inevitable fate.

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In the end, professor Quemada accepts his death. Maybe because he had done all he could to leave a mark in the world. He was already content with what he had, except for Vida. His love that could not be. In the end, he whispered and murmured Vida's name until reaching what could only be the afterlife. In the end, professor Quemada lived and died as he breathed. A wonderful scholar, yet a tragic lover.