I love You Papa

A Story by gentlebreeze13

The story about having a good father! And that we should not forget to be very thankful for that!

I Love You Papa

Once it started raining, it just wouldn’t stop. The sky wept great tears in an endless stream until the clouds had entered everyone’s hearts and made them feel as grey and weepy as the weather. But still it rained on and on. That’s exactly how I felt when my father died.

The song “Dance With My Father”, although its message is quite different from mine I can adeptly relate to it because having my father in my life is something I am truly proud of and misses a lot!

As a young girl, I remembered him carrying me while having this political debate with his cousins in our small rented house owned by ‘Nanay Denny’s up and down for rent apartment. Ours was down below, and my father and his cousins (my uncles) love to have this political chitchat about the time of Marcos Regime. So I kind of grew up in a lot of political debates. But what made it special was not the debate I heard all the time, it is the time my father carried me and stroked my back till I fall off to sleep. It was one of the many opportunities that my father gave me as a child!

Talking of opportunities, between my parents my father served as my mentor. In all my school works, he was the one teaching me. I remembered him buying my perfect score for one peso. During that time one peso is such an amount for a young girl like me. So, I kept all my perfect scores so that I can have a lot of money when father will buy them.

Not just my scores, one time I drew a hairy dog. I showed it to him and told me that I drew better than him. Before he left for his job, he told me to draw another picture and that he would buy it when he comes home if he will like it. From that on, I dreamed of becoming an architect. My father, in a way guided me to dream for my future although then I didn’t know it yet that time.

My father made me promised not to join any fraternities when I reached college. I remembered him saying that he never spanked me without a good reason which was true. I got myself spanked or belted at my butt when I was a young girl after I gave him a good reason for not giving me punishment which I failed to give him even once. So when my classmates asked me to join in their fraternities I remembered his words “If I found out you join one, I will not forgive you! Others don’t have the right to put bruises on your skin, It is only ‘us’ your mother and I have the right to do it and that is only when you did wrong!” That’s why I backed out when my friends and I were about to join a fraternity. I remembered clearly my father’s face when he said those words. It was terrifying!

By the time I had my first teaching job, I had to board and lodge on a near place. So it made me came home only in weekends. And during those days, I counted how much money my father has to work for in order to feed me and not just me since we are six siblings in our family after I received my first salary and counted what was left after paying my stay in another’s house. With that realization, it made me proud of him more knowing the fact that he was not an employee receiving much for his job as a mechanic when I was young and a jeepney driver when I was in college. . My father was a good man indeed!

And he continued to be one till I got married. Remembering him so well made me realized that I am such a lucky girl to be one of his kids! That’s why if only by asking and if it is granted to have a dance with my father is the last thing I would love to have with him! With that dance I will let him feel that I am his daughter and he raised a good one for that he deserved my saying “I Love You Papa!