As 2007 was eagerly anticipated and happily entered into our lives this week, a very close and dear Uncle and friend passed on too.
Gilbert Isidro, or Tito Ato to us nephews and nieces or Ninong to Des and I, passed away yesterday from cancer. He has not been well the past couple of years due to a massive stroke he suffered. It was painful to see him then, frail and almost helpless. Specially for us who knew him. He was a very energetic and funny man. A real joker whose pastime was to tell funny stories of his youth, and there where many of those. He would regularly drop by Luigi’s Restaurant along Tomas Morato, where I worked for a good part of my early professional life, to have his favorite Sheperd’s Pie and share a cup of coffee plus a stick of his ever presen Champion cigarettes with me. He would offer me advise, mostly good, about life and living. He had lived the life, and it was he who I first heard say “We’ve lived our live, your Dad and I, anything after where we are now is overtime”.
So Bon Voyage, Tito Ato. I am sure your entire family, Tita Cherry, Yvonne, Monique, Isko and Louie will be missing you as much as I will. Rest yourself, because we’re gonna see each other again, and the next time we do, I’m pretty sure you’ll have more stories ready for me. Better have the Sheperd’s Pie, Brewed Coffee and Champion Cigarettes ready, this time it’s your treat.
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