Dad And Mama Julian

Last week I received this sad news that our neighbor and friend in Kamuning before passed on. The family live in Australia. Mama Julian was 98.

I remember those days with fondness when we were living in the same place and the same compound. Almost every night, Mama Julian would bring his ukulele to our place and dad his guitar. They would play music together and I would just listen. They could pick chords of several songs without even looking at anything. During lazy days, the four of them – my mom, Nana Mina, Mama Julian and Dad would play cards called Entre Siete in our place. Mama Julian and dad would partner together and they had this what they call dentoy, movement of their heads, sway of their hands and other such nuances which they do together to let each other know what cards he had. Nana Mina and mom could not defeat them. Mama Julian was the godfather of my youngest brother.

His youngest daughter told me this: Arlene, I felt warmed when I hear these very precious moments in the life of your dad and mine. I remember these too.

She said further that truth be told, your Dad was the only true and loyal friend to tatay. He’ll have his memorial service on Sunday via Zoom and that happens to be Dad’s 100th birthday.

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