Miguel Joshua Escanan

Here are the eulogies that were written by friends of Miguel, but were not permitted to be given at the Funeral Mass, they have been posted so that everyone can read them.

Eulogy #1

Hello everyone. I would like to start off by expressing how thankful I am to Tita Rita

and the Escanan family for the opportunity to speak here today. To honour and celebrate

the life of Joshua Miguel Escanan. Or otherwise most well-known as MJ. It is an especially

sad day because grieving for the loss of a young person is one of the hardest things to bear.

When an old person dies we may grieve, but we can more readily accept that a life has

been lived and has drawn to its unavoidable end. But when a young person dies, we mourn

not only the life that was, but also the life that might have been.

I’ve known MJ since I came here to Canada when I was 9 years old, and I’m 19 now.

MJ and I are only one year apart. We may not be blood related, but he was the closest

person I had as a close cousin here in Canada. My parents would always say to treat and

think of Tita Rita and MJ as family, and in my heart I know and feel that they truly are my

family.

MJ and I had a few things in common; we’re both an only child, we’re both cheap

with spending our money, and we’re both usually reserved and quiet people that would

rather listen, like not so long ago during our last trip together at woodbine beach. Our

parents would mostly do all the talking, while MJ and I sat quietly listening to them, and only

occasionally chiming in with our opinions. Both our moms would always make fun of us for

being cheap with our money, but I think the correct word to describe us is practical. MJ was

very wise with his money. In our last conversation, he was asking for my advice financially

for school, like how do you apply for OSAP or scholarships, grants, things like that. Which

showed me that he’s a person that cares and plans for his future. He had just graduated

high school and was planning on attending Centennial College in September for electrical

engineering.

I must admit that I didn’t really talk to MJ outside our family gatherings, and I

wouldn’t know him as well as his best friends might know him. But, I do know that he’s a

kind and thoughtful son. Despite the stereotype of an only child as spoiled or selfish, MJ

was the complete opposite. And as an only child myself, I believe that MJ wanted nothing

more than to make his mom happy and proud.

And, it is not cliche to say, 'you never know.' Because no one knows how much time we

have, and that is why we all must live and enjoy the moment.

That's how we honour MJ. By reaching out and spending as much time as we can with our

families, friends, and the people that we love. To enjoy and love every person we meet or

come across.

By: Jodie Dela Cruz

Eulogy #2:

In Loving Memory of Miguel

For anyone who doesn’t know me, my name is Julius and I have been a classmate of Miguel for the past 5 years now.

This has to be the most difficult thing I have ever done in my entire life. Miguel is a very kind, generous and honest man.

When I met Miguel for the first time five years ago it was through a mutual friend. Initially, he seemed very to himself, but once I got to know him better and he opened up I very quickly realized that he was a very cool dude. I really did enjoy his company and his laugh was contagious, like no other, a laugh that is almost impossible to replicate. When we realized we had the same interests, such as anime, our conversations went on for the whole day. Even if we didn’t have the same classes the next period we would always continue talking the next time we saw each other whether it was during lunch, in the hall, or even after school. There was this one manga in particular that we bonded over heavily that came out every Wednesday for the past 4 years. This manga is my personal favourite and I’m sure it was one of Miguel’s favourites as well. Every Wednesday without fail, we would always converse about whether the newest chapter was good or bad, but there were never really any bad chapters and that was something we heavily agreed upon. Just talking about the chapter would always be the highlight of my day and the only thing we could talk about for the rest of the week was how exciting the next chapter would be.

Miguel was very hard working and helped me with my school work as well. Whenever I missed some notes or didn’t understand a question from the homework it was always Miguel to the rescue the next time I saw him but whenever we had a problem in front of us we always got past it together. For example, we had our placement exams done recently. Miguel and I were given a heads up a month in advance as to when the deadline was and we were stressed. This exam would always be at the back of my mind whenever I was doing school work or at work. We would always be talking about when we would take it and what the material on the exam was going to be like, but instead of crying about it, we buckled up, studied a lot, especially the night before and the morning of, and we ended up with scores that were to our satisfaction.

Lastly, I would like to thank Miguel’s family for giving me this opportunity to not only speak in front of all of you today but to also brag about how good of a friend he was to me. Thank you.

By: Stanley