The best everyone can do for her, other than praying for her health, is to stay away and stop asking her family what stage she’s in, who are her doctors, is she in hospital or at home, whose home, etc.

"Kris has read Cory’s statement and that’s how the family wants it, stick to the statement, nothing more, nothing less," someone in her intimate circle of confidantes told me as we prepared to dig into our lunch at Sofitel hotel for Bulong Pulungan last Tuesday. Even Deedee Sytangco, Cory’s spokesperson, said there was nothing she could or would tell media other than what was in the brief, almost cryptic, statement "because those are my instructions."

To think that I was just waiting to bend Deedee’s ears to the latest in cancer-fighting techniques -beginning with the "rawvolution" of eating raw, uncooked food as advocated by Cheloy Ignacio. I was also ready to launch Rey Orosa’s third (or fourth, or fifth?) career as an unlicensed cancer specialist with his intimate knowledge of "what doctors aren’t telling us about cancer."

But just when Deedee had said what she said and my opening sentence was nipped in the bud, Rod Cornejo of GMA Channel 7 sat down at our table and began talking in earnest about acupuncture as one way to overcome cancer. Gently, gently I butted in to repeat what Cory and her family want. Privacy. Distance, for a little peace and quiet so the former President can rest and have all the space and time to follow doctors’ orders.

Sooner or later all of us former and future patients will have to learn how to respect a patient’s right to be left alone. Speaking from experience, which patient relishes the thought of wave after wave of visitors tossing the same questions over and over again to someone who’s not looking or feeling her best, someone who needs to nap or undress for the nurse in the next five minutes, someone who could be in pain?

Perhaps it’s time to revisit our Christian duty to "visit the sick," for when doctors put up the "No visitors" sign, they do so for and on behalf of the sick.