Tito Chito

As a kid, we were taught who were my parents' siblings. It was quite interesting, especially on my father's side because there at the living room in my grandparents' house hung a family painting, a copy of their family photo taken during Lolo Paul and Lola Piling's 25th wedding anniversary. The painting was our visual aid to learn and memorize the Valdes-Albano siblings!

I have met all my father's siblings, minus Ramon "Tito Chito" Albano, who, I was told died together with 23 other scouts in an air plane crash on July 28, 1963, exactly 50 years ago.  Reading the souvenir programme published during their 25th death anniversary, I learned that before boarding the plane in Bangkok (going to Greece where the 11th World Scout Jamboree was to be held), he sent a postcard to his family in Manila and to his priest uncle in Ilocos Norte.  Little did everyone know that it would be his way of bidding them adieu.

I was in my junior year in Letran Manila (the same age as when Tito Chito died) when we had this recollection somewhere in the north of the metropolis.  During that religious event, the recollection master exhorted us every now and then: Yakapin ninyo sila habang mainit pa (Hug them while they - parents, loved ones, etc.  - are still alive).  The words cut us through the heart and we, boys though we were, kept on sobbing.

Teenage children that we were at that time, we wanted to be independent. We don't want someone else to talk over us. We wanted our every whim granted.  Being independent has its advantages as it allows an individual to think for himself, to be able to make decisions. However, without proper guidance (from above and from those around them), young people end up taking people and things for granted. Worse, we might live l till we're too old!

Yakapin ninyo sila habang mainit pa. Tito Chito, I guess, would have embraced his loved ones on many occasions.  When was the last time we hugged our children, our spouses, our loved ones?

Yakapin ninyo sila habang mainit pa. Tito Chito's thoughtfulness of sending a (final) postcard shows us to seize every opportunity to value the people around us.  When was the last time we said or wrote words like "I love you", "Thank you", "Take care", "Sweet dreams", "God bless you", or (borrowing Tito Chito's closing lines in his postcard) "Love, kisses, and prayers"? 

Yakapin ninyo sila habang mainit pa.   Tito Chito, aware that he was away from his family, assured them in his postcard, that he was OK, that they need not worry.  In this time and age when families become separated due to migration and the like, when was the last time we sent an e-mail, text, etc.  to those away from us just to let them know that we're alright (or not)?

Yakapin ninyo sila habang mainit pa.  In today's Gospel, Jesus taught us to call God "Father".  As such, we are called to love because that is His essence.  In the spirit of the Boy Scout's motto let us be "Laging Handa" (Always ready) to share the love we have experienced from the Lord, before it's too late.

God bless you kind and sweet soul, Tito Chito!