Open Letter To My King Who’s Already With The KING☺

He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.  ~Clarence Budington Kelland

I know I haven’t expressed my gratitude to you enough for raising me up to the kind of person I am today. There maybe words left unsaid but I know that there were no hugs or embraces left not held out to you. We were never really expressive in words but we knew we compensated it well enough with the times spent lying with you by the bed, talking and hugging you every time we came home from work.

You know I just love it–that we were able to hug/embrace you and kiss you anytime we wanted when you were here. Like we didn’t really find it awkward to do even if we were already grown-ups. That made the ‘wish you were here’ moments more endurable since we knew that we were able to express our love for you then.

Mama and I were talking over donuts and cup of coffee yesterday morning and on an impromptu, I told her how blessed we feel we (my sister and I) are to have wonderful parents like you. I am in great awe with how you guys raised us. You and Mama actually made a good team in bringing us up –not so strict but good enough for us to know and understand what’s right and wrong.

I miss you, you know. Your 100 brush strokes every after shower (kasi feeling mo lalago pa ang buhok mo pag ginawa mo yun!); your katakawan; your pambabara and panlalait always telling us why we didn’t grow to be as cute as you; the way you tap my feet in the morning to wake me up (but please don’t do that anymore dahil manginginig na talaga ako sa takot!); your never-ending kwentos about your childhood days (at alam ko na sa’yo ako nagmana pagdating diyan dahil hindi rin ako maka-move on sa nakaraan!)…Actually, there are more than these that we’re missing about you; nevertheless, we miss how you were a father to us–kuripot pero nagbibigay pag kailangan talaga, hindi expressive pero emo din, mahilig mang-okray pero we know you were proud of us, too. Ayaw mo sa lugar na bentang-benta sa maraming tao, lalo na sa mga kakilala naten kasi gusto mo yung kakaiba palagi, yung tayo ang unang makakapunta. Ayaw mo nang ‘go with the flow’ lang because you never believe in mediocrity. 

 We understood the value of going to church and praying together as a family and the difference of faith and religion because of you. And I especially love the fact that you never told us which course to take in college or which job to look for because deep inside, you always believed in us, that we could make it through this life because we are your empowered daughters:-) I really thank you for igniting in us the fire to dream big, achieve more, and be more than what other people think of us. And because of that, we have good jobs now. Unlike the other people we know, we didn’t settle for that ‘job’ that was readily available to us. Instead, we dared to move forward, soar more heights, and explore the many possibilities of life. These people we know kept pulling us down–maybe because they have money and we only have decent jobs. Your words keep lingering in our ears: Hayaan mo sila kung may pera sila, basta kayo may marangal na trabaho. Pakita ninyo sa kanila na kaya ninyo. That made you way different from the other fathers we know. You never spoon-fed us. You disciplined us in the way that we will not just settle on the life we’ve grown with.

Thank you so much for being just the perfect father for the kind of daughters we are:-)

Happy Father’s Day Papa Dearest! You will always be the king (next to God, of course☺) in our hearts:-) See you when we get there!