Eulogy for Tatay

Reading from Job 1:21 -- He[Job] said,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Although my mind knows this truth, my heart tells me otherwise but to cry, mourn, and grieve. Pero Tay, pagbigyan mo na kami, we might not know how long this grieving moment will be, but one thing we know is that you are now in a much better place with Jesus Christ watching over us.

Malungkot lang kami because we will definitely miss you Tay:

I will miss watching "Ang Probinsiyano" with you every night sa Pinas and how you try to patiently explain to me the backstory and who the characters were, diyan mo nalang panoorin sa langit ung finale ni Kardo Tay;

I will miss the way you snore at night, tahimik na sa gabi, wala na kaming music;

I will miss how you clear your throat before you read the bible verses assigned to you during our Sunday family devotion;

I will miss your super detailed kwento na may kasamang monologue ng mismong sinabi ng tao, yung puro kami tanong ng "O tapos, o tapos" dahil hindi matapos tapos ung kwento mo;

I will miss you asking me what I want to eat so you can cook them for me pag umuuwi ako ng Pinas;

Wala na ding magrerequest ng lechon or crispy pata during special occassion kahit alam nating bawal sayo yun, atleast now pwede mo na silang kainin diyan Tay.

Don't worry about Nanay Tay, we will look after and take care of her the best way we know how just like how you modeled it to us.

And we will draw strength in the promises of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ knowing that this is just temporary and soon we will see each other again and that we will be together for eternity.

In 2015, I wrote a blog post entitled "Dear Tatay," where I tried to compare Tatay to other fathers. In that post, I mentioned hindi enough ang isang blog post to describe my father, but if I need to sum it up in one sentence:

Tatay is a man of few words but a man of great love in action.

The night before I flew back to the Philippines while summarizing Sunday's message in our church, the pastor said, that the most important question in the world is Jesus' question to His disciple, and that question is, "Who do you say that I am?" That question hit me hard, it's like God asking me, in the midst of everything that is happening to me right now, Girlie who do you say that I am[God] now?

And I choose to say -- Jesus is good and faithful. He is sovereign and true to His promises. He is an all-knowing God, who makes all things beautiful in His time even in seemingly dark moments like this. And as your children Lord, we choose to respond in worship and in faith to trust You even more.

To God be all the glory!