I’d like to borrow this quote from Anne Geddes which I think is a perfect description of what a father should be.
Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad.
Just saw this in one of my notes at Facebook early this morning. I know I posted this here somewhere but I can’t remember the exact date I published it. I usually blog about him during his birthday and birth anniversary. We lost him one December night back in 2007. We will be celebrating Father’s Day this coming Sunday.
I am reposting a blog I wrote eight years ago barely a year after we lost Dad. I can still remember I was crying while writing this little tribute to him. Good memories will always linger in one’s heart. Treasuring the times that he showed us how much we were loved. I wrote this on a Father’s Day too.
Yesterday, on my way back to Manila from Pangasinan, I brought home the Kodak Easy Share digital picture frame which contains more than a hundred pictures of dad when he was still alive. My brother painstakingly collated every picture he has in his own album and uploaded it. It’s only more than six months now since we lost him but when I watched and viewed the pictures once again, it seems as if he is never gone. Some pictures have captured him vividly – a few months after he retired, his daily routine there in the province with mom, his joys in seeing his grandchildren in every important occasion that we had, his delight in meeting old friends and contemporaries, and always, his ever ready smile for everyone. It made me miss him all the more.
I am the only girl in a family of three boys so you could say, I am Daddy’s girl through and through. I’ve always found it easier sharing everything with Dad,be it simple things like the news headlines, how to plant and take care of a vegetable garden,how to fix things at home when the hubby is not around and yes, how to throw a ball in one of our rare baseball games in the province. One thing I could never forget though were his stories on how he struggled as a teenager to find work so he could finance his studies. He worked for thirty-one years in UST and that pretty much influenced all of us (his four children) to study there and embraced a true Thomasian education. He taught all of us the value of hard work and the value of always treating other people with respect.
It was through him that I learned the basic skills of cooking and he was the one who taught me how to make an estimate when it comes to preparing dishes for special occasions like birthdays and Christmas. I must say, dads really come in handy when they are in the kitchen. For him, it was “hands-on” all the way. He will just watch you if you are doing it right or not and who would not learn from that? I think guys do cook better, there are more guy chefs that I know and heard of. Or maybe, they do love to eat that is why they are more successful in the kitchen.
I was envious of his skills in playing the guitar together with my uncle (his brother) who used to play the violin. One thing vivid in my mind was when we were still young and televisions were not yet in fashion, nights were spent listening to him playing the guitar accompanied by his best friend in our neighborhood who played the ukelele. He even composed a song or two in our vernacular language. Those were the days, quiet ones seeing the other side of my father.
Dad was a disciplinarian but he was never strict with us. He would always say,”you know what is right or wrong, follow what your conscience tells you”. Learn from your mistakes, such familiar words that have shaped my view of things. Yes, I do remember one thing that he always reminds us,”you carve your own destiny”. That was my dad, the ever practical but ever-loving one.
I miss you Dad…..happy, happy Father’s day!
Dreams And Escapes 