BAGUIO CITY?Pinned by debris from their collapsed home, 13-year-old Earl Ventura screamed for help amid the darkness and the cold.

Enduring extreme pain, the shy soft-spoken girl pushed the wooden cabinet pinning her across the chest and, between sobs, called out for her mother Elvira, 56.

The family had just shared dinner that night of October 8, when landslides caused by heavy rains from tropical depression ?Pepeng? buried their home and those of their neighbors in Crescencia Village along Bokawkan Road.

Before the ground gave way, it seemed like any ordinary night at the Ventura household. Earl?s father Arthur, 59, had gone to sleep while sister Evelyn Velez, 36, was doing the laundry. Her brother Arnel, 25, was reviewing for his accounting board exam. Her brother-in-law, seaman Johnel Velez, 32, had just arrived from abroad, and his children Jomaelyn, Jhavie and Ejhy, aged 9, 8 and 5, respectively, were playing computer games.

Now, it seemed, she was alone. But Earl, the youngest in a brood of five, did not give up and continued calling out. Suddenly, she heard her mother?s reassuring voice. In a mix of Filipino and Ilocano, the older woman urged her to hang on.

?Don?t give up. Let?s continue to pray together. Don?t lose hope. Have faith. God is merciful and kind,? Earl recalled her mother telling her from another room.

Elvira could barely move her severely bruised arms and legs but she struggled to keep her daughter company if only through her voice.

?At one point, my mother was praying aloud,? Earl recounted. ?Then she shouted several times for help. As the night wore on, she started weeping. But she kept talking to me until dawn.?

Added Earl: ?I knew (my mother) was also in pain yet she encouraged me to stay positive, to be patient and to be brave while waiting for the rescue. I cannot forget her courage, love and affection.?

Elvira, a Jehovah?s Witness, recalled telling her daughter: ?God promised us? that he will soon put an end to all forms of suffering. Whatever happens to us now, there is a hope of resurrection in the future paradise on earth. Have faith.?

The scene, Earl said, was akin to one of those Bible study sessions that her mother usually held with her children.

The words were reassuring. ?Even if we don?t make it tonight, don?t worry. We will see each other again someday. God will more than make up for any pain we may have experienced,? Earl recalled her mother telling her.

At one point, the young girl fell asleep due to exhaustion.

But had she known that it would be her last conversation with her mother, Earl said, she could have stayed awake all night to keep her mother company and pray with her.

A combined team of policemen, soldiers, miners and volunteers finally pulled Earl out of the debris at 11 a.m. on Oct. 9. She was taken to the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center.

A few minutes later, her mother was rescued. Badly bruised, she was still clutching her mobile phone. The woman was later seen calling up a relative. Please look after my family, she was heard asking the relative. Aside from Earl and Elvira, the other family members were still trapped inside the collapsed house.

The call seemed prescient. Elvira would die of cardiac arrest that same afternoon at the BGHMC. Her grandchildren survived but suffered minor injuries.

Two days later, the bodies of Arthur, Arnel, Evelyn and Johnel were found. They were among the 23 residents of Cresencia Village who died in the landslide.

Earl?s brother, Arthur Jr., 31, who was renting an apartment with his family in another barangay, said it was sheer agony, trying to identify his parents, siblings and brother-in-law because their faces were mangled beyond recognition while their bodies had started to decompose.

?I had to ask Earl what they were wearing before the house collapsed just to make sure,? he said.

Although the city government allotted burial plots and embalming fluids for the landslide casualties, the only man left in the Ventura family still had to scour funds for the P100,000 funeral expenses of his five relatives.

Assuming his father?s role as breadwinner, Arthur Jr. took his sister under his custody and moved her to his rented apartment in Barangay Loakan. He said he and eldest sister Evangeline, 35, who is working in Metro Manila as a bookkeeper, decided to share the cost of Earl?s schooling. Johnel?s mother meanwhile took the three Velez orphans and moved them to her hometown in Iloilo.

For Earl, the tragedy has meant major changes in her life. She now lives with her brother and cousins and has transferred to a school closer to her new home.

In Earl?s new classroom, a quote on a wall reads: ?The road to success runs uphill.?

But the landslide survivor remains undaunted. She said she is determined to face the challenges of her new life by keeping herself busy and sticking to her normal routine.

?I study well. I play with my cousins. I read my favorite Bible verses. I pray a lot. I?m always in the company of my family and friends. I don?t go out alone,? Earl said.

?I?m holding on to the promise I made to my mother that whatever happens, I will not give up. Deep in my heart I know that the pain I have now will soon pass,? she said. ?