‘If we die tonight, do you think that Meghan will come to my funeral?’: Why drinking PG Tips with Thomas Markle as his 19th-floor Philippines apartment was rocked by an earthquake was the most surreal moment of my life, writes CAROLINE GRAHAM

As I came together again, it wasn’t what I expected. Two hours after greeting Tom Markle, the Duchess of Sussex’s alienated father, in his apartment on the 19th floor in Cebu in the Philippines on Tuesday At night, the building began to shake violently.

As the high -storey block swung side by side for more than 15 seconds, we could hear the screams of the neighbors. I looked at the clock on the wall at 9.59. Then I turned to Tom and said: ‘My fear.’

An earthquake of 6.9 magnitude had just hit.

As I opened the front door and looked into the corridor, I noticed a long crack on the wall running the entire length of the corridor.

A woman from Chicago, a single mother, was hysterical because she was rushing in tears towards the emergency exit. ‘To leave!’ He shouted as he was preparing to go down 19 times down the street because the elevator was still.

But it was never an option to go down the stairs for Tom.

81 years old, he slowed down significantly and uses a cane to walk around these days.

This week, the 19th floor ‘trapped’ reports, even though it was not the case. Tom’s son Tom Jr, Tom Jr, who lives in the apartment next door, said, ‘Dad, you will have to walk back to 19 times if you walk 19 times down at a point.’

For a man who had two heart attacks on the eve of his daughter Meghan in 2018, he had two heart attacks on the eve of his wedding and had almost killed him four years later.

Finally, we decided to stay. While the Philippines sits on the Pacific ‘Fire Ring’, a bad area for volcanic explosions, the tectonic plates of the Earth’s tectonic plates are joining, Tom’s building is relatively new, built on strict security codes and designed to withstand earthquakes.

“ This is, ” Tom said. “ Let’s get here here. This building does not go anywhere unless the next earthquake is larger. And most likely we will only have small aftershocks. We are as much as we are everywhere. ‘

A disaster with Meghan’s father was one of the most surreal experiences of my life.

Tom, a retired Hollywood Lighting Director, began to break jokes to alleviate his mood and calm my worn nerves. Welcome to the Philippines. You notice that it costs me for a reserve – not only the earthquake, but also the light show, ‘a tropical thunder and lightning storm intensified the window.

The earthquake was the largest person who hit Cebu, an industrial city, which has been slightly less than a million years for more than 400 years. So there was no surprise when the power was cut. However, the emergency generator of the building started and Tom’s apartment had WiFi, TV and air conditioning. We also had gifts I bought from a British shop in Los Angeles: Tom’s favorite PG tips and ginger nuts. I made two cups of tea stuck hands.

Outside the window, the city was in darkness. A large suspension bridge, usually decorated with red lights, disappeared in gloom. The dramatic images of the bridge emerged on the social media.

Tom was reflective while talking for hours. ‘Do you think Meghan will come to my funeral if we die tonight?’ he asked.

At least 72 people were killed and 350 people were injured in the earthquake that hit Cebu in the Philippines

Then, with a cartilage, he added: ‘Am I going to get a better funeral because his son -in -law is fifth for the throne?’

It wasn’t what I expected when I travel to Cebu, where Meghan’s father and half -brother Tom Jr from my home left his long journey to Cebu, where he left home to start a new life on the other side of the world since January. I put it at the Los Angeles Airport on December 31, hugging Tom, and soon promised to see him.

“ I do not escape anything, ” he said. ‘I am going to a new life with beautiful people and I hope more peace than I have lived in a few years.’

Tom’s story is well known how Tom alienated from Meghan and Harry, whom he never met. On the eve of their weddings, he made the error for posing for some paintings transferred as paparazzi shots, because he was hunted by photographers for months and claimed that he did not receive support from the couple, even though he asked for help over and over again.

This week we discussed the drama of the week again.

“I believed in the photographer when posing for beautiful paintings would make my life easier and people would leave me alone.

On Sunday, when Posta reveals that Tom cooperates with Paparazzi, Meghan and Harry are angry.

Within a few days Tom had two heart attacks, and when the doctors declared him too sick, he had to miss the royal wedding. As a result, he had to watch King Charles’ daughter had partially walking down the corridor in the St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. Meghan’s family was the only member of Tom’s ex -wife, Doria Ragland.

Mr. Markle, who lives in Cebu, said that he wanted to see his grandchildren and wondered if they have a Markle nose ‘.

“ I am still grateful to the King for doing this’ he said.

‘I wish I was.’

The crack with Meghan is a wound that never heals. “ I never stopped loving my daughter. I always loved him and always loved him. Nothing will change it. ‘Finally, when the building manager opened the elevators again, I was able to leave him at 4 in the morning.

At least 72 people were killed in the earthquake and 350 people were injured and when I returned to my hotel, I saw a lot of people sleeping on the streets.

The rest of the week was less dramatic. Tom and I got stuck and watched his favorite black and white Hollywood movies, including Little Rascals and Charlie Chan.

On Thursday, a demonstration was held on TV about Prince Harry’s last visit to England, where a few philanthropists took aims and met with cancer -covered father for more than a year for the first face -to -face meetings.

According to the show, Harry gave King Charles a framed photo of six, six and four -year -old Lilibet.

Tom was pressed. “ I would like to see my grandchildren. Both have two grandfather who will love to see these children. Someone becomes the king of England.

I wonder, does Markle have a nose? When you are grandmother or grandfather, you think of things like this. I would love to have a photo. I want to talk to Charles. He knows how hard to alienate from all people on the planet, a child and how difficult it is.

“ I don’t want anyone to pity. Anyway. I’m not getting young. When there is work this week with the earthquake, it makes me think about my own deaths that I do a lot these days. I am 81 years old, Markle men usually do not exceed 80. Will I care if I die and become a stranger if I die? Will it come to my funeral? ‘

Mr. Markle’s life in the Philippines is often a good thing. He and Tom JR live on a complex with housing towers on one end and a shopping center with a hotel on the other side.

The apartments have a swimming pool, gym room, pool room, cinema and entertainment area. Each of the two apartments cost £ 500 per month. In La, similar apartments in a building like theirs would cost at least £ 3,000. Mr. Markle, ‘I love the people of the Philippine. Very sweet and friendly, they always smile. Here you can live a good life with a lot of money. Rent is cheap, food is fresh and cheap.

“ When we first came here, we lived in a hotel for a few weeks and I was known several times. But in general, they don’t know who I am here, and that way I like it. ‘

Tom Jr, a Youtube channel, meets his father’s daily needs, organizes medicines and brings him food.

He’s also a 27 -year -old Filipino woman for six months.

The earthquake has made them realize that they were not the best place to be the 19th floor, and Tom Jr is now looking for a single -storey house for his father, an apartment for himself and Rose.

Tom Snr, “ `I want to sit on a patio and watch a place where I can watch the passing of the world, ” he said. I want to buy a cat. We always had cats when Meghan was growing up. I would love to adopt an old cat for the company. ‘

When I looked at Tom’s window for the last time before flying La to La, an overwhelming sense of sadness hit me.

I’ve seen Tom as a friend for years. He’s a good man and a compassionate man. He immediately donates when he sees ads for charities on TV. He likes to talk about Old Hollywood about the stars he works with, including Demi Moore. A child cannot pass through the street without delivering a few coins.

He worked hard for his whole life. For years, two hits on the US TV show – General Hospital and Married … He was the lighting director with children and gave Meghan the best special training for his money to buy.

While working as a player in the teams, $ 40,000 ($ 30,000)-even when reporting a episode, it was always strange that his father continued to pay the $ 250,000 student credit bill for his father’s Northwestern University.

But he was a great proud man, ‘I told him that I would pay his education and I kept my promise. A father does this. You give your children the best start you can make in life and then send them to the world. ‘

Before meeting Harry, Meghan, now the invalid blog ‘The Tig’ blog, gave his father to his father, when a teacher asked him to mark a box that describes the race – he gave ‘black’ or ‘white’ options – his father said to him ‘Draw your own box’.

La has family memories and storage units full of the content of the childhood bedroom, which is wondering how to return to him. ‘I want to give Meg the chance to get their belongings, but I don’t know how to contact him,’ he said.

This week we were lucky to be in a modern tower block when the earthquake hit. But it could end differently.

And later on this month, Meghan, who will receive another human award in New York, lasts too much – especially when it comes to his children. They miss a relationship with an American grandfather who wants to meet them, not only with their royal relatives.

Of course, if Meghan is a real person, it is time for forgiveness and ax burial.