Celebrating A Father's Life

Celebrating A Father's Life

06 June 2013

My father turns 66 today, exactly on 6/6, and the last 10 years have not been pretty.

It always makes my heart heavy to think the stage where he is right now. But I am not going to talk about that today.

I want to celebrate his life. A life of a man, of a husband, of a friend, of a father that has helped me to be where I am now.

A father who always put his daughters' interest before him.
And told many stories before we went to bed.

A father who couldn't understand our taste of music and hence the argument over a radio station that we should hear when we were in a car.

He who would climbed to the roof and fixed the TV antenna tirelessly. "The TV looks good. Why are you still fixing the antenna?" I asked. "If you can achieve something better, why not?" he said. His answer silenced me. His perseverance stays in our mind and works like a candle that guides us when we are trapped in our darkness.

Singing in his baritone voice in duet with his other half, his voice was a beautiful ornament in our house.

His love to drive had taken us to beautiful places. He would drove far, passing paddy field and I would roll down the window, inhaling the grass smelled air, eyes open wide to soak in the lush green in front of me. His love for food had spoiled us with various delicacies, sweet and savory. At time he would disappear from home, we would wonder, and then he would return. Bags of charcoal in his hands and he would later busied himself cooking satay. Black face, dark hands, and a proud face of his creation.

His love for animal had granted us the luxury of birds chirping in our home with their delicate, colorful feathers.

"I am a happy man," he once said to his fried. "Because my wife is close to God, because one of my daughters is building her life, and the other one has a bright career."

Today, I am celebrating his life. Papa, you are my one thousand splendid sun.