A Happy, Heavenly Birthday For Our Dad!
Today is our Dad's 92nd Birthday Memorial and in behalf of my siblings and the rest of the family circle I want to honor anew the person who amplified the adjectives GREAT/AWESOME and made a tremendous impact on our lives.
We thank God for giving us a wonderful father like our Dad who has impressed upon us a foundation upon which to raise our own families – a lasting legacy to pass on to the next generation. He passed on to us an incredible heritage that provided a platform to learn, grow, and enrich ourselves to become what we are today.
We thank God for giving us a wonderful father like our Dad who has impressed upon us a foundation upon which to raise our own families – a lasting legacy to pass on to the next generation. He passed on to us an incredible heritage that provided a platform to learn, grow, and enrich ourselves to become what we are today.
At first, I thought it would be impossible to pinpoint one action that made him a great father, but after hundreds of precious memories of him inundating my mind these past few weeks, I found myself always coming back to one simple, yet incredibly powerful action: LOVE. He rarely said, “I love you,” but he demonstrated it tirelessly and unconditionally in different ways. Mostly, I remember that he loved our Mom so much, and watching him how he treated her in a loving, devoted fashion has had a profound impact on our own respective family life. His deep and abiding love for his family and steady commitment to his secular jobs and spiritual endeavors were visible examples of what it truly means to be “ great and awesome person”. By the same token, the values of kindness, forbearance, and humility ingrained in us by our Dad have allowed my siblings and I to move in a more purposeful direction and guide us in the course of life.
My siblings and I always find ourselves missing our Dad so very much. The grief still comes along once in awhile, but the joy in the memories treasured by all of us gently pushes aside the blues. Deep inside our hearts are the fond memories of him shaping our characters and morals. We miss him. We miss him dancing and singing with our Mom with gusto. We miss him playing a variety of musical instruments - piano, violin, guitar, harmonica and whatnots. Yes, we miss him after all these years.
He was a dedicated and conscientious man who worked so hard and made sacrifices for his family. He set his goals high and accomplished them no matter how hard or impossible they seemed. He kept our family together; kept a roof over our heads, provided food in our stomachs, supported a great deal of our education and supplied us things more than we need to survive. More than being a doting father, he was a teacher, minister, and provider. He was a great husband, father and grandfather. He's the family's champion - a pillar of strength and discipline. He motivated us to do our best in everything. He played an important role in our spiritual life - instilling in us God’s enduring principles of faith, hope and love on the road to life.
He was a dedicated and conscientious man who worked so hard and made sacrifices for his family. He set his goals high and accomplished them no matter how hard or impossible they seemed. He kept our family together; kept a roof over our heads, provided food in our stomachs, supported a great deal of our education and supplied us things more than we need to survive. More than being a doting father, he was a teacher, minister, and provider. He was a great husband, father and grandfather. He's the family's champion - a pillar of strength and discipline. He motivated us to do our best in everything. He played an important role in our spiritual life - instilling in us God’s enduring principles of faith, hope and love on the road to life.
God has blessed him with a good head on his shoulders and natural talent for leadership . He applied these God given gifts creatively and with a strength of purpose that inspired all of us and everyone who knew him. His extraordinary and multifaceted career filled us with awe and admiration. We have always esteemed his academic achievements, tried to be like him, and be our own persons the way he was.
He was a man of few words. All the life lessons we learned from him were not enlightened through words but through deeds. He was the kind of person who shunned lengthy reprimands whenever we committed actions against his moral values instead, he set an example for everyone to follow. It was the way he lived his life that taught us how to confront life's intricacies. He never followed the crowd but his conscience. He never compromised his principles.
He was more than a father- he's the cherished person next to Mom. And he will live forever in our hearts. He is worthy of our praise and accolades - not only because of everything he has done for us, but also because of who he was. And we trust that he has earned his place in heaven. We know that one day we will be together again on a new journey.
Unlike the previous years that I wrote about my Dad , this year my thoughts and emotions are much different. I still miss seeing his smile, hearing his laughter and experiencing his genuine zest for life, but today I feel a new connection, and sadly, also an incredible longing for him. As a song goes, " I hear the echo of your voice, reach for you as if you're here - your tender touch, your warm embrace; I still can see your face, you are the one I can't replace and though it's been so many years, I still can see your face."
We love you Dad. Happy birthday!
( This is me and my Dad when I was five years old - I will always be his little angel "" and he will always be my hero )
