I am grateful that I am one of those who will never get tired of bringing back to life those memories that they have with their fathers. The fact that I can never bring him back to life but I still can cling to those good memories that soothe the pain and I will never get tired of talking about my father. Everyone has their childhood stories to tell, be it happy, sad, or frustrating.
Today, I chose to recall the good memories of my father.
It was back when I was in my first year of high school (12 years old) when papa died because of an internal hemorrhage in his head due to a motor accident. That was the turn-around of our princess-like stories but for now, I'll be sharing some of my memories about him.
I enjoy reminiscing about my childhood especially when it comes to my father's cool trips, strict side, and some craziness along the way.
One of which is his story-telling:
He said that in one of the Christmas parties he had in high school, they were asked for an exchange gift and an out-of-the-blue idea popped in his head and got ready for execution. Haha, He chased a frog and then wrapped it together with his gift and waited for the priceless reaction of his girl classmate upon unboxing. Glad it turned out to be funny and everyone including his teacher laughed after the terrifying jump of the frog. He loves pranks😂 Not to mention those classic pranks of putting huge rocks and mops made of coconut in his classmate's bag before going home.
The new year when loud exhausting noise from motorcycles wasn't a trend and not prohibited yet. Papa grabbed and dressed up a stray cat and tied a rope with tin cans at the end and put stones inside it. Every step made by the cat will produce noise from the collision of cans to road surfaces and stones. People witnessing cannot stop laughing because they said that was a clever and effortless way to make some noise.😄
Last Christmas we had with him, he got his finger wounded after lighting up five stars fireworks for fun. Papa was really careful and never get injured while doing this but at that time my father was drunk. The firework that he lit up didn't explode after few seconds of throwing, that he even managed to pick it up from the road and ended up being scolded so hard by mama(mom).
Mama got so nervous and run to pee, while mama was in the bathroom papa laughingly made hand signals for us to be quiet and wrote an "I love you bha❤" letter on the table using merely with his blood-yes that was with a heart. "Bha" was their word of endearment, short for "padaba" a Bicolano word that means "love" when translated into English. We found it so sweet and cute that mama's reaction was unexplainable, I saw a surprised reaction, angry, shy, kilig at the same time haha so good to see your parents loving each other so dearly with their love languages.
He was tall and had long legs, that I always call him daddy long legs (from a fictional character in a cartoon called Daddy long legs or famous amine Judy Abbott). Every time we had to walk from our house in Gate 2 Subdivision to our canteen in Gate 3 or vise versa. He always teases me with walking long-paced, both forward and backward walking (to watch over me) and leaving me behind. I was so little that even if I run, I can only keep up for few seconds, and then papa was leaving me nothing but his hard laughs. Once we are near our destination, he would carry me on his shoulder and I would grab some of his hair strands as if I was riding a horse. Lol
I like going out to dark areas. I'm never scared of darkness knowing that every time I went out of the house in the evening, I always have a companion with me which is papa.
He usually plays around with me in the dark, even if I have a flashlight in my hand. I still have moments where papa would play hide and sick and that I can hardly find him.
He loves seeing me get terrified when I couldn't find him anymore and the magic word was for him to show up is "papa, sirit na" or "suko na" or "papa I give up" or when he surprised me with a pick-a-boo behind those huge trees.
Sari-sari store was far from our house, you'll go up some part of a hill that playtime can still be possible. Papa taught me to prank his friends, hide from those huge trees or lay down, act like a dead individual and surprise his friends when they approached that super dark area. That was really fun, they even told me that I can really be a white lady with my skin tone and that I just need to wear a white dress. Hahaha, I just realized lately that my fascination with huge trees started there, if only cameras were that accessible back in those times I would love to shoot more with my father and my victims. Hahaha Anyway, upon going home mama will always ask "what took us so long to buy stuff" and then we(papa and I) will look at each other with giggling smiles.
Papa was the most responsible person I ever know. After work he will go get the containers to fetch water for our whole day consumption, will chop down firewoods and fill the storage, stock it for future use(very important especially that our place is typhoon prone area), he does the laundry, he cooks our food- he's a great cook, fed the poultry, pigs ducks and other pets; my mother loves to plant flowering and ornamental plants but papa love to plant something useful in times of need which are vegetables, crops, and fruitful trees because he's a thriving agriculturist. Before he can finally do some socialization with his amigos, everything must be done first. I never heard him complain about life's hardship, I never saw him got discouraged but he fought life with dignity and gratefulness in his heart.
One day he took a day off and attended a friend's birthday. He told us to feed the pigs but remove first the animal manure in the cage, unfortunately, no one remembered even mom. So the moment Papa went home and checked, we were all rebuked. While my drunk father was ranting, I don't know why I went to mama and my older siblings, but they were laughing at Papas's gestures while cleaning and scolding. When my father noticed us, he throws us the pig's manure that he grabbed in his hands. Glad we had an umbrella there and made it as a shield, pigs' manure continued to shower on us and I never stopped laughing. I thought it was playtime already and that papa's anger subsided. I said, "we have a shhhieeeld" while dancing and sticking my tongue out to Papa which triggered papa to run after me with a bolo knife. I just enjoyed running and running, round and round our house many times and when I got tired I entered the house. Papa didn't catch me maybe because I was just too fast or maybe because his drunk. I was 7 or 8 years old back at that time and I thought we were just playing. Thankful until now that Papa didn't fell while holding that bolo or I'll carry it in my conscience until now.
There, those are just a glimpse of my good memories with my father that are worth remembering that give me life lessons. No matter how poor we may get, we can still be happy by simply appreciating the things and people that surround us. That no matter how tall we may be upon growing up, still we have to follow and honor our parents. Value your family more than you value your work, your money, and other possessions because you will never know when will be their end game in this world and for us not to live with regrets.
This might be a useless article, many will laugh, many will think they're better. Well, that's them and that's life but this is how I can do it, I just let them be and I will just let myself write before I could ever forget. Haha, I know someone out there can relate too, that sometimes we choose to just remember our happy days where we were just playful, energetic, and innocent. Back when the less you know about life, the less stress, conflict, and responsibility you have.
Anyway, Happy 15th fathers day to you there in heaven Papa. You are forever loved. We will always remember you, when minds can't recall hearts can still be able to remember. Thank you for visiting me in my dreams and seeing you soo happy makes me stronger, able to move forward and fight for another day.
To all daddies and fathers at heart, Happy Father's day too💕 Cheers to being strong throughout many years, drink more calcium because aging is waving.😁
This may seem like a father's week for me but then again sorry and thank you. Sorry because this is a week late for the real schedule of Fathers day 2021. I'm proud of myself though that I finally conquered the staring stage at my draft😅. Some may be posting one or two articles per day but it took me a week just to finish this. Not bad for a non-writer like me. Better late than never and I will forever write my thoughts because it helps me in different ways. And thank you to this platform, I will now be able to share something beautiful from my messy mind.
Thank you for reading. God bless!❤