Today would have been my father’s 62nd birthday. He died before he reached the age of 60. In our family, we never gave each other gifts on special occasions, such as birthdays, Christmases and the likes. Not even a card.

We just never got used to the act of gift giving I guess, but that doesn’t mean we do not express our love. My parents just raised us believing that there are too many ways of showing your love and appreciation to one another, aside from gifts and words, aside from hugs and kisses. Duh? I sometimes wonder what other ways. But yeah, there are.

At one point I got the nerve of buying a Mother’s day card for my mother 3 years ago, unfortunately the day fell on the 9th which was my fathers 59th birthday. Or maybe, Mother’s day was the Sunday after the 9th? I was always confused. So I just always kept in mind that Mother’s day is my father’s birthday too.

That particular year, I was more focused on giving my mother a real card for once and just sent a SMS to my father as a birthday greeting. Later I found out (from my father) that my mother was really touched by the card I sent. Although he didn’t say a thing, I made a note in my head that the following year I’m getting him a birthday card instead and this time around my mother is getting the SMS for a birthday greeting. He died some six months away before his next birthday.

After he was buried, I was rummaging through my drawers in LB and found that I collected old (and some new) photos of him, got most of them scanned and restored. I cannot remember what I was planning on doing. I guess I wanted not just a mere birthday card but a framed photo collage, or something like that. There was too many stuff going on with me that time, I most probably got distracted and never got to completing my little surprise project for my father.

Looking back, I have never really given my father any real gift. Not even a tankless water heater! He would have loved something like that. He was the one who most complained that the water here is too cold for him. Well if you consider all the underwears I bought him since I started working, gifts.

Weird huh? I just wanted to give him those because he never cared to buy himself good underwears because he has always been spending his money on us. That was kinda funny, but I always did buy him a couple sets of undies every year. I wonder what the sales persons thought each time I did? If they just asked, they would have known that there’s one daughter in the world who used to buy her father undies.

The moral lesson of this story: let nothing stop you to tell your loved ones you love them. Just say it, never hesitate. If you cannot say the words (i love you), write them down and give it to the person. Life is just short, death happens and you will spend your life regretting that you never gave the person you love a hug or anything, just because.

I’m not going to make the same mistake again, I promised myself that.

Anyways…no real gift ever for my Papa…except for this little guy:

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Happy birthday ‘Pa! Raine reminds me of you every single day. I love you very much.