YESTERDAY, I got a text about the death of a good friend’s father.
Iluminado Ditan, father of Caesar “Johnny Kawa” Ditan, dedicated long years to the Dumanjug Central School, first as a public school teacher and then as school principal.
I met him here when Caesar enrolled at UP Cebu High School. Already, he was concerned about his only child being far from the safe and familiar terrains of Dumanjug.
But like all loving parents who always want the best for their children, he and his wife Marcelina decided to quiet their fears and take a leap of faith.
When Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos decided to become president for life by declaring martial rule in the entire country in 1972, Iluminado and his teachers, including me, had some conversations about his son’s safety in Cebu.
There was no predicting how far the dictatorial Marcosian clutches would reach. Again, the parental love pulled through, and soon enough, the son not only finished high school in Cebu, but also college in Diliman.
There must have been times in his growing years that the son found his father too protective. But most children eventually become parents themselves. In traveling familiar roads, they realize that parents’ joys are silent, and so are their griefs.
When the recent years claimed many friends and acquaintances, I silently whispered, “Lord, what an abundant harvest You’ve made. Yet, Your will be done.”
So, my list of friends departed goes longer and correspondingly, my prayer time. I’m told that the dead can help pray for the living, but they cannot pray for themselves.
Iluminado is now in this list. So is that gentleman of all gentlemen I’ve known, the late Jose “Pito” Villacastin, better half of Delia Aliño Villacastin. Prior to helping his daughter run her elementary school in Consolacion, he had retired as college registrar of Cebu Institute of Technology University.
The dead are never dead to us until we forget them. So I remember nightly with prayers the vivacious Socorro “Cherry” Suzara Muntuerto and Portia Dacalos, both of whom always punctuated our conversations with laughter and witty repartees.
We were not close friends but I’m always thankful for a talk he delivered on customer service. Then the top gun of the Visayan Electric Company, Inc. (Veco), Alfonso “Al” Aboitiz spoke passionately about the automatic mandate for “natural monopolies” like Veco.
His take: Because customers have no choice since Veco has no competitors, Veco must therefore render exceptional service. I found that declaration humble, and wish that other utilities and their employees could behave accordingly.
My prayer offerings are also for Consuelo “Pet” Misa whom I shall always deem as the HR practitioner’s guru. Witty and brilliant, she always autographed her work with excellence.
Most of all, she was intellectually honest, refusing projects which were not in her core competencies but referring them instead to other experts.
My former teachers are in my prayers, too. They touched my life in more ways than one, and they were bigger than life outside the classroom, like Montana Saniel, Clara Tenchavez Lucero, and Julita Ortiz.
Of course, my prayers are profuse as well for my mother Rosita Pastrano Echaves who left us 23 years ago, and for my parents’ parents, siblings and relatives; and for my childhood playmates and high school classmates now gone. May they all be under the Lord’s mantle of protection and love.
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)