IDOLS

In our lives we tend to run into people that tend to leave a lasting impression on us. We admire them and yes sometimes we even emulate them. They may be fictional or real individuals who have done something we ourselves wish we could have done. We want to make the same impact they made on the lives they have touched. On the top of my list are my parents. My father was the coolest dad any child could ever have. He gave equal measures of love and understanding. I never see him get out of control, always calm and collected. Especially through the rough patches of our lives he has been a constant source of strength. People seek out his counsel. They go to him when they need a sound opinion. They go to him for companionship because he never weighs down on anyone and so he is always good to have around. He has fabulous stories from World War II and his great escape from the Bataan Death March, from his work in the lumber industry, from his younger days as a fisherman and from his adventures while driving, he is a good driver. He has a mean ping-pong hand and he loves basketball.

Then there's mom. The country lass from San Teodoro, Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, she was a crowned princess of the Flores de Mayo on the year she married my father it was 1955. She is also another great story teller and that is because she has lived through so much coming from a family of about a dozen or so siblings. One of my favorite world war two stories she has is when the young ladies in the family had to be hidden and their hair shorn so the Japs won’t see them and claim them for their own. But what I love most about my mom is her eye for beauty. She loves all things beautiful. She has kept our home of seven girls beautiful always. One would not expect high aesthetics from someone unschooled on refinement, for her it’s instinctive. She simply just has good taste in clothes, in home decors, in food. It is great to be under the care of some who loves the good life.

While we have hundreds of people we look up to, I have to say that my life was shaped by the two people who loved me the most. I miss them every day and I try to walk on their shoes always.

Author: Monie Maunay
email: buddygallagher@gmail.com