A Tribute to My Father

June 19, 2011 is Fathers’ Day!

On this occasion, my fond memories of my father bring back   to life  the years of his earthly existence and they are flashed before  me like that in a movie screen, and the  scenes appear so real. As they are played in my mind and I see them in my eyes,  I get  a   mixed feeling of melancholy and gratitude. Melancholy in the sense that I miss him and this thoughtful and gentle sadness is mixed with regret that he did not live longer than 67 years. How I wished he lived until this day as I personally would have wanted to see him spend his life after 60  free from physical toiling and in total  relaxation and enjoyment. But that is not how God had planned it to be and He called him back may be because He needs a  creative,  exacting,  and professional handyman in heaven.  

Gratitude is what I owe to God for giving us our father who did what he could to provide for us without complaining at all no matter how physiologically tiring it must have been for him to juggle carpentry and joinery, blacksmithing, farming, and family life. He is a man of few words and I can only surmise what must have been in his thoughts in those moments when I saw him physiologically dreary and exasperated.  The moments I would hear him talk a lot were at nighttime when he was tipsy with ‘tuba’, and somehow I wished then that nighttime would come so I could have a glimpse of his thoughts and feelings about ‘life’.   He is one person who would internalize his thoughts and feelings rather than blurt them out as he is more introverted, and this is one trait I got from him.  If there is one striking character in him that I suppose all of us children were able to imbibe, it is being a ‘homebuddy’. This trait has been innate in each one of us that it manifests itself automatically in our behavior.  My father would always make it a point that his drinking buddies would go to our house and not the other way around. He was uncompromising in this.  In those rare moments he had to go out with his drinking buddies, he would make it a point to come back within the shortest time interval possible. No one could prevent him from being away from home longer than he thought would be needed.  Despite the lure of going out with friends to drink after work especially during payday, he was consistent in politely saying ‘no’.  The pull of the home was always more powerful than the pull of  leisure time with buddies. To him, he would rather spend the money for family needs than for leisurely pursuits.

There are too  many good things that can be mentioned about my father that they will make for a good biography. But on this special occasion, I would like to bring to the surface those that I can recall at the moment as my special tribute to the man who I owe my life to and the man that taught me through his own unique and quiet ways what ‘dignity of labor’ is and should be.

I love you and I sorely miss you Tatay!