Last Father’s Day marked the beginning of an arduous journey dad could not but take. With all of his courage and confidence to battle against a tremendous and long cure for the deadly illness that would anytime claim his life, we all knew dad had to act more than courageous and confident to confront, and he had not disappointed us even a bit, amazingly so.

When we went to see him last Father’s Day at the hospital, he talked to us with as much humor and leisure as he could, attempting to distract our attention and worry from the coming operation he had to undergo two days later, pretending he was not afraid at all. It was a large operation posing on anyone, not to mention on an octogenarian, to remove several vital organs of a human body. It goes without saying that it could only count on luck to survive the operation, and dad was just daring to make his bet on it with one cause – we wanted him to live. He had promised us he would go all out to win the battle so that he could celebrate with us the next Father’s Day and told us not to worry about him, saying he would be alright and fine then.

Today, Father’s Day, dad was gone for over four months. For all that, we had learned a formidable lesson dad had unwittingly taught us. It is something of the greatest significance that we will treasure as a pearl. It is far more meaningful and valuable than a large fortune that we will make use of it to benefit others. The very months when dad was with us together battling the illness, we felt it long because they were bitter, we felt it short because they were sweet, they had collected all the sweetest and bitterest memories of dad and us. All those memories, bitter and sweet, are intertwined and we are not going to select any of those to remember but to remember them in one, from time to time – for life

What dad had taught us is no one can decide you are happy or sad except yourself, and sadness in life is just some passer-by, they will eventually go rather than stay and, give way to happiness – when I saw how dad again talked to us with humor the following day when we visited him after he had suffered a severe pain one night.

Dad, what we learn from you is something we cannot learn elsewhere. I love you and miss you badly.