as a father should be

this was my post about a father that i talk to eleven years ago on my taxi ride going to work...

happy fathers day!! i salute all fathers - real father, surrogate father, step father and aspiring father.
i like to quote here a story of one of the taxi drivers story i listened to. this is one of those days i commuted to work and the traffic gave me a chance to listen to manong for his story. i started the conversation to relieved boredom. since the taxi was old and sounds rickety. i asked him why there was a sound coming from the right back side of the taxi as if the wheel will come off anytime. he said that there was something wrong with the lpg tank tube right at the trunk compartment. it make a noise as it passes thru the tube to the car's engine. trying to say it with humor. i was so worried after that. i saw pictures of me being embroiled in the flaming taxi on the middle of the road in my head.

manong continued his story. he said that he'd been driving for almost 24 hours already. still the money he earned was not enough for his boundary for the day and to pay for his daughter dialysis tomorrow. his words about his daughter caught me. i had a friend who undergone dialysis. it's been difficult physically, emotionally and financially for his family. he passed on a long time ago.

he told me that his daughter was four years old. she's an adopted daughter. he said that she was a daughter of his best friend, a street thug. his best friend was imprisoned for a crime and got killed in one of the jail riots. his best friend's wife was irresponsible mother to the child who left her daughter to tend for herself at home while she's away at work. leaving her kid with some food for her to eat at the table while she's away. the daughter living in that poor condition until she got sick. manong decided to take her in and care for the kid like his own.

the day i met manong it's been more than a year his daughter on dialysis treatment. his daughter got a kidney stone from the instant noodles and hotdog her mother left for her to eat before he adopted her. he said his daughter doing half fine in the meantime because one of the kidneys started to function normally. the doctor saw a promising result of the dialysis. but it had to continue for another four months.

manong said that he was very lucky. the day he got his daughter. good things came to him, some sort of luck that he always earn enough for the day's work. he even met good hearted people who helped him with his kid's dialysis. like the korean passenger that sponsored his daughter and even referred them to a hospital.

he said that he was hoping that his kid will get well. he planned to send her to school. he hoped that she will be healthy again after her dialysis period. he said his words with a tenderness of a father should be.