Tio Rico

We normally know who are relatives are by seeing or hearing about them. Sometimes, though it can be a funny experience if what you hear about them isn't that accurate. In a few years back, I got a forwarded message from my Father. The message: a query about me! The one who sent him the message was his first cousin who thought I was an ex-seminarian teaching in UST and is now a resident of the UK. I told my long lost uncle that although I used to work in UST, I was never a seminarian. You would expect that that's it, but he replied telling a bit of his own life in Canada. That started my 'networking' with Mr Walderico A Valdes, Tio Rico for short.

Every now and then, I would get forwarded messages on various topics: religion, politics, family, etc. Some of these messages have been posted in our web. In last year's Fiesta edition, he was very kind enough to pen an article where he shared his experience living and falling in love in Gagalangin ("My Life in Gagalangin").

Apart from this, he was my (and Anluwage's) resource person in many ways: he gave me the Ilocano version of the "Hail Mary" (published in our web's Marian Year collection of Hail Marys in various languages and dialects); he explained to me why his surname is spelled with an "s" and not a "z" (although word has it that both are one and the same, hence we have that affinity with the late Angela Valdez, Pres Fidel Ramos' mother); and he gave me insight why munggo was a favorite dish every Friday.

In his e-mail messages, you could feel how deeply rooted he is in his faith and in his vocation. I greatly appreciate his e-mails as though he is just beside me. I was deeply touched when he sent us a copy of his book entitled "Musings in the Night (A Collection of Poems)" as a Christmas present last year. I sent him an e-mail thanking him. I never thought it would be his last aguinaldo.

Tio Rico succumbed to bile duct cancer which, according to Manang Ying Valdes-Donohue (his youngest daughter), he bore "with dignity" for almost 2 1/2 years. If I am not mistaken, it was during those times when we began keeping in touch online.

In "Lord Jesus, I Love Thee", one of the poems he wrote(actually his first poem), he said:

"Lord Jesus, I love Thee.
I offer this restless heart of mine.
Calm it like Thou didst on the sea;
Ne'er let it stray from Thy hand."

I agree with Manang Ying that his Dad is now "experiencing a joy quite unknown to us." A joy that can be ours if we too like Tio Rico would fight the good fight called life.

Tio Rico, your e-mails and poems will truly be missed. Rest now, dear Uncle, for you will never be lost in God's safe hands.