Tatay’s Girl

Kai Alfonso in Ang Pinoy Stories

Jun 22, 2020 • 3 min Read

Recently, I listened to a talk about our Heavenly Fathers’ love. My take from that talk was that how you view your father’s love is how you view the love of God the Father.

It brought back all the beautiful memories I had with my father. I have always regarded myself as – a Tatay’s girl

During holidays, when all my siblings working in Manila spent their vacation in our home, everyone would be busy doing house chores. My role was simply to be with Tatay, to attend to his needs.

Tatay Eping suffered from Parkinson’s Disease, which affected his limbs. At 56, he took an early retirement because of his condition. He could walk but with difficulty and he should be given momentum in standing and sitting. He can no longer walk alone, he was confined to his chair — for 15 years.

Early in the morning, my brother would play the music my Tatay and Nanay loved while I would prepare his food or just sit with him to talk about my work, just about anything and everything new to me. He was a good listener and I loved being with him, not because I’m exempted from the chores, but because I loved to.

I would buy, prepare, and serve him his favorite fruits while I sit on his chair’s armrests and would feed him the fruits while I told him my stories.

That’s how close I was to my father. He knew all my dreams and aspirations.

In one instance, Tatay went for his morning walk and gathered guavas from our backyard. He gave my sister a basin full of what he gathered. As I was still asleep, my sister went to wake me up and marvelled to me how Tatay gathered guavas for her. She wanted to make me envious. She was surprised to see guavas, complete with twigs and leaves, carefully tied to a bunch on a table beside my bed. All the good ones were there.

My sister playfully scolded him, “Tatay, ha? May favoritism ka talaga!” He answered with a hearty laugh.

I remember my Tatay cleaning my CAT sword almost every day when I told him that during a tactical inspection, I would have to lick the sword if found with rust. I know nothing of this sort happened, but I believed it then. Tatay replied, “Just let me know, I’ll get his head rolling with this rusty sword!” I know that he was proud of me when I reached the officer rank and got my sword.

When I had to be early for school in complete CAT uniform, he would skip his service vehicle to walk me to school. I experienced walking hand in hand with my Tatay.

These beautiful memories make me feel special and loved. These also remind me of God’s faithfulness in my life — I have experienced walking hand in hand with my God.

My father once told me that he is afraid to let his daughters leave his side, but he also said that I should put all my trust to God that whenever he can’t be with us, God’s love will be there to protect us. I know that God’s love will always find me. Tatay said so. I trust my Tatay, I should trust God.

This is how I view my Tatay’s love, and I will never forget that beautiful bunch of handpicked guavas tied with twigs and leaves.

I love you, Tatay.  Happy Fathers’ Day.