<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v191/tsaki/523f197b.bmp">

all my life, i've known him as just my daddy.

and as selfish as this may sound, i'm not quite sure exactly WHO he was, apart from my daddy. i know how he's my hero because he's the strongest and wisest man i know. i know how fiercely he protects his family. i know how he grew up during the war, how when he was a little boy, he sold cigarettes he made from picking up discarded cigarettes and re-rolling them, just so he could help his family. i know how he treasured education above everything else, seeing it as a way out of provincial life. i know how he fell in love with the woman of his dreams, raised a family, and did everything in his power to protect his family. i know how hard he worked, how he studied while he first started out as a security guard, eventually earned a degree as a mechanical engineer, and ended up being the vice president of the company whose gates he first guarded against outsiders.

i know him as the greatest man i will ever know, the one who other men and my future husband will always be compared to.

that's my dad.

and i also know how he's in a better place now. a place where he can eat all of the things that were bawal to him when he was sick, a place where he can walk and dance and do his tai chi and have his beer, a place where he can breathe and rest easy.

i know these things, truly i do.

but i also know i miss my daddy, and that i will spend the rest of my life missing and loving him.

everything good that is in me, whatever strength and intelligence i possess, i owe it to that man.

i love you, daddy. i hope i made you proud.

you were the best thing that ever happened to me. and i will forever be grateful that i was your girl.

* tsakiwaki made kwento @ 11/07/2008 10:00:00 AM