Leon Hernandez Cudiamat was born in Calaca Batangas, Philippines on February 20, 1936. He was the third child of Mr. Celso & Mrs Filomena Cudiamat. He had two brothers & four sisters. Only Eufemia Cudiamat-Sanggalang is alive & still living in Calaca, Batangas,Philippines.
Leon is known for his nickname “Leo” so when I say Leo, I am referring to my father Leon.
Coming from a poor family, Leo learned to be a good worker at a very young age. He helped his mother sell farm produce & thresh rice in his elementary & high school years.
When my father was growing up, it was the time of World War 2. His family had to work very hard to earn a living. Only his eldest brother, Teodoro Cudiamat finished college & became secretary to the Dean of University of St. Thomas graduate school.
On Leo’s high school graduation, his mother had a heart attack & passed away at the age of 43. His oldest brother took him to Manila & he went to college in University of St. Thomas as a working student to help pay for his tuition & other expenses, with the help of his brother.
Leo worked as a messenger in the outpatient department of UST Hospital until he became the chief of the records section of the same department. He finished third Year College in Business Administration & stopped schooling when he got married to Lydia Malabanan on December 25, 1962. They met at a dance party. At that time, they were Roman Catholic believers & were converted to Adventism through the efforts of Brother Francisco & Sister Anita Rada, & Pastor Ramon & Mrs. Evangeline Baldovino. Leo had been blessed to serve as a deacon & then an elder in Dapitan Bible Center Church until he migrated to USA in 1998.
Leo was working as the head of the UST Outpatient Department when his wife Lydia recruited him to be an insurance agent. His wife was a supervisor then at Philam life Insurance Company. He became a successful insurance agent & had the privilege of traveling outside the Philippines like Malaysia, China, Hongkong & USA.
He was also called to set up the records section of the Perpetual Help Hospital in Binan, Laguna, Philippines. He also sold college rings & leased graduation gowns to medical students.
Leo never smoked nor drank alcohol in his life but he loved to eat. He told us that during the war, he witnessed the Japanese soldiers killing Filipinos & throwing their dead bodies in the sea & also saw them eating raw fish. Since then he didn’t eat fish. He was just 7 years old.
Leo loved a lot of things & one of them was music. He used to listen to Aegis, Asin & ABBA. When he became an Adventist, he loved memorizing songs from our church hymnal. He had memorized Brightly Beams, O Happy Day, Beulah Land , In the Sweet By & By, & Wonderful Words of Life. He also liked the song’s Ligaya ng Buhay, He Lives, Daystar & Holy City. He enjoyed watching Voice of Prophecy Homecoming Reunions, Heritage Singers & Precious Memories of Bill & Gloria Gaither.
He loved watching History, National Geographic, Animal Planet & Sports channels. He loved basketball! Back in the Philippines, a long time ago, his team was Toyota & here, he liked Golden State Warriors.
Leo also loved playing scrabble with his wife & at times with us but he changed one rule of the game. Instead of 7-9 tiles each player, each one got 20! It was fun playing with him!
Leo lived a full life. He was happy that we all graduated from college & four even pursued higher education. He was always proud of his children’s accomplishments. He worked hard together with my mother to give his children the best Christian education. He knew that all his children were loved by him.
The good Lord gave him 82 fruitful years & he passed away peacefully on Sunday evening of August 19, 2018.
