Last Hurrah

Edwin O'Connor’s novel, “The Last Hurrah” written in 1956, became popular after it was filmed into a movie. Since then, “last hurrah” has become an expression to mean swan song; end of an era. 

I am borrowing the phrase, but it is not in the context upon which the book was written, which is about a hugely popular, astute politician, Skeffington. He lorded it over his rivals until times changed and in the end, his political savvy, at age 74, was crushed in a world overhauled by technology. He was defeated and he died a fallen man. 

Fallen is a word used today by businesses slain to death by the coronavirus pandemic. Many have closed shop, down and beaten.  

On the contrary, son #1, who runs our Medical Transcription (MT) training center, sees this as an opportunity. 

“Our time has come,” he said, and started setting up a fully online system that will keep the school running despite the lockdown. "Medical Transcrition was not a top-of-mind career before the pandemic. But being shackled at home will make people realize this is exactly the job they need without going out to work and risk being infected." 

Spot on. MT can be done right at home. 

He then took steps to make the school be known via social media ads and messages to old inquiries. "Now anyone can train in MT wherever they are in the Philippines, or outside," he explained with confidence. 

While he was toiling over the new system that can adapt to a world overturned by an unseen virus, I told myself, Our last hurrah. 

Meaning, for as long as God makes this Covid-19-infested world turn, the sun will still rise, the flowers will still bloom, the grass will still grow, we will still get up in the morning, and we will continue to discover grace that the Lord offers free to those who want to receive it—one last time. 

His optimism is catching. How can one not see the opposite of Skeffington’s fate? 

Tony and I have joined the fray—for us who grew up on typewriters, transitioning to online learning is like traipsing a forest with ferocious animals—doing odds and ends to help. 

Son #1 has reason to be bullish. In all our 14 years in the business, MT companies have hounded us for more hirees. About 98% of our graduates (2% opted for other calling) are often employed before they could graduate and many are occupying premier positions in MT companies here and abroad. Those who are in Manila come and visit our school with food to celebrate their milestones. 

However, there is no longer a need for a four-walled classroom; we will soon vacate it. In its place is a borderless learning lab that will prepare students anywhere for an ideal job—in the comfort of home. Can we dare stop?

 Our MT center’s hurrah is not the last. Not at all. It’s a hurrah that is meant to last.  

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." (Isaiah 43:19 NIV)