YOUR LEGACY LIVES ON

UNEDITED SAMPLE LITERARY ARTICLE
By Vladimir Paat Villegas
IV – Sir Isaac Newton


Our Lord was once resurrected from the dead as decided by his father. That is why people would bring back a person to life again if they were given the chance to do so. If they would be given a chance in excess, they would even immortalize that person to be contented with their lives after that much melancholic and difficult experience just because of a great loss. If I would just be given that chance, I would do it to save everyone who exists in this family.

I could remember those days when that person used to carry me on his lap almost every moment of the day. He would ask my parents if he cold have me in his house, especially during the free days, just to listen to the music of the classical composers, treat me by buying something or going outside to eat because he had plenty of money or just simply to be with me. Every thing in me was happiness and satisfaction.

But there were times when I became so stubborn that he spanked me with his slippers. But, despite that, he asked me to go with him after an hour. There was nothing I can do at all because it was my fault, but I never knew why I was so defiant to do some “blackwhite” by doing the wrong thing even if I knew that it was wrong. After all, my words would just be eaten. And yet, I still loved him. He would still love me because I was the only hope in his sight as he had said. He would still do those things which we used to do with me just to make sure that I was not crying or just sleeping around the corner.

Time then came when he went in and out of the hospital because of an uncertain disease. My parents and my grandmother just told me that there was nothing to worry about because he was doing so fine in his office. They said he was just handling some cases which are somehow complicated, especially that one which pertained to a rebel returnee. He would then come home as unexpected, embracing me so hard and saying that he missed me so much.

Time passed us by, doing the things that we used to do together, until time came that no one could hide the truth. A tube was connected to his lungs just to make his life longer. My mother even said that he made a sign through his two fingers, which meant a worry for me and my younger sister. He underwent different operations inside the Intensive Care Unit of the University of Sto Tomas Hospital just for him to get well. Hopefully, he got well and went home, but weeks just counted and he was inside the hospital again.

Excitement came to me every time he went out of the hospital and anticipation for his return came every time he returned there. But just after a happy day in the school which would make him proud, every droplet of the ocean evaporated to form dark, nimbus clouds around me because his mission was done.

As we woke that morning, all we saw was our mother holding the phone and crying. I simply refused to believe the truth, but there was no escape from the bitter reality as we reached the place where his remains are. Shock came to everyone, especially to me, because I saw that he was just dressed in a gray barong and black pants, holding a rosary and having his eyeglasses beside him, with a crucifix overhead and funeral lights around. After his wake, we refused to say goodbye as he entered the final chamber, but there was no other thing to do but to go through it and suffer for hazes dominated in my life.

That was all of his life which ended almost a decade ago, but I know that it was not yet his entire legacy for it lives on. There will never be a better dream than a dream with him doing the things which we used to do. We would all miss him because almost every thing we have is from him. Maybe, I would never be what I am now and where I am standing right now without his essence because everything, even my intellect and attitude, is from him.

If I would just have that chance to bring you back again, I will, for us to feel the tender years we spent with you again, but we are already contented with you shining down your guiding light on us. You might have been gone long ago, but we felt not alone for we know that you were the one sent by the Lord to say that every wave would just read the shore and be gone.

Your legacy lives on, Tatay.