"What love story do you want to share with me today?" I asked. B without any hesitation replied "I want to talk about The Father’s Love."
"I am 39, joyful at peace & content being single. It’s a nightmare to be 40 and single in the Philippines as friends and relatives will bombard you with the same question, “When are you getting married every chance they get which is quiet often”. I am not averse to getting married because marriage is God’s design.
God’s love is very real in life because of my dad’s unconditional love. At the tender age of 40 hahaha, I will always treasure the memories we’ve built together like completing the 22 flavors of Baskin & Robins’ after our movie date. When I was into those fun runs, I would come home late am had to train so my dad would get out of bed and convoy me around the village to make sure that dogs will not run after me. I was fat as a kid and I remember my playmate would bike in front of our house and call me, “Baboy”(You are a pig) and my dad would go out of the house furious and call them “Shitheads”. It’s funny because I was just 10 at that time.
And now that I am adult, my dad is still very much present in my life, driving is not really my favorite thing so when I get invitations for weddings, parties etc. that are not within my comfort zone, I am assured that he would look for a driver or he would drive me to the venue. These are just a few but my heart is full.”
I could feel the joy from her voice when sharing these stories with me. How not to be happy when you receive so much love & caring from your loved ones?
B definitely wasn't trying to paint a perfect picture about her dad. Her father had several extra - marital affairs for years which hurt her mom extremely. Despite all the pain, her mom stayed in the marriage, never said nasty things about her dad & more importantly raised the kids with so much love for their dad. It was a difficult journey for the family but we were able to overcome it with thru prayers and forgiveness.
A few years ago her dad had quadruple bypass and even if the doctors were 99% sure that he would survive, there’s still that 1% chance. He called the 3 children 1 day before the surgery and he apologized to each one of them for all the wrong that he has done & told them that he loves them. He gave her his Rolex just in case he did not survive but Praise God that he did so she had to return the watch as well :)
Obviously B learned a lot from this experience so it was quite effortless when I asked her to share her advice, “Life is short, Honor your parents while they are still alive”. Don't give them the fancy funeral that they can no longer see. Be intentional in making time for them. People should never have "what ifs" but have beautiful memories.
I really love what B said about creating memories instead of "what ifs" moments because we tend to forget this quite easily. Because we are busy with our work, because our friends are always in the priority list, because traveling alone is more fun, because our parents are not in the same generation with us (duh!), because and because... I can list down 1001 reasons here and at the same time, there is 1 fact that trumps all these excuses - because they are our parents, the ones who bring us to this very precious life. Stop taking our parents for granted because they never do that to us & start making time for them because they are always there for us but for how long? Only God knows I guess and I don't think he'll tell us.
So what are you waiting for?