Remembering Tatay on his 70th

Tatay would have been 70 years old today.

Tatay, when he was about my age. 

What I always remember about my father: 

He held my hand to cut my first birthday cake. When I was in primary, he would protect my notebooks with plastic cover. When I was in the intermediate grades up to high school he would draw me laboratory tools and write down their uses. He was not a chemist but working as a laboratory technician, he knows the chemical formula, names, mixing protocols, handling, etc. 

My 1st birthday family pic

When I took the UPCAT he was outside the CEAT-UP lecture hall, peeking through the window and watching me take the exam from 8am to 12nn. He was with me when I needed to go, for the first time to UP Diliman library and waited for the entire day outside. When I was in college, the only time I got sick, I remember him waking me up in the middle of the night so I can take the medicine and be able to come to school again the next morning. 

On my first job, he went with me for my final interview in Manila. When I worked in the research laboratory, he would fetch me late at night after setting up an experiment that would last the whole evening. 

But what I would always remember is whenever our viand has no soup or sauce, there would always be a bottle of Coke to pair with whatever fried meat or fish. For 36 years, he took care of me and I was only given 36 days to return that favor. 

I was there when he got a heart attack on the eve of his 65th birthday and when he was revived at dawn. I was there when he took his last meal, I administered his last insulin shot and made the last adjustment to his oxygen, hoping against hope that he would last another birthday. I think I was the only one to whom he would reminisce his memories as a child with his own father, during his last week. And I was there when finally he took his last breath. 

I feel sad for those who never knew their father, and I pity those who cannot remember even a single good memory with their father. For the things my Tatay did as I was growing up and what he made me witness on his last days, he wanted me to remember: "I am smart and I am strong"; a first born favorite, all along [just like him].