Vicente G Tiong Keng Co

8 March 2014

This day to OUR world, we lost a very good man…

It was May of 2013 when we got the call… our dad was lying unconscious in the emergency room of Vancouver General Hospital. My sister Rosemarie, my mom, and I were the first ones to arrive. We could not believe what we saw. He had machines hooked up to his body, in a state of coma, traces of pain written all over his face… That was the start of my dad’s long journey trying to stay alive for us, his family.

To all of you who knew him, I am sure you remember him as a jolly and talkative man who had a huge love affair with good food. A man who was satisfied just staying home watching tv or reading the papers. But to us, especially my mom, he was our oldest baby.

As you all know, he had extensive health issues but that didn’t stop him from sneaking chocolates, ice creams …behind our backs. I wouldn’t be surprised if at one point or another, you would hear my mom scolding him because of that. But when he started giving you that sad puppy face look, you couldn’t help but give in to him and adore him. To us, he was the best husband and father anybody could ever hope for.

He was a very loving man. A very dedicated husband and father. In our young minds, we never recalled a time that he had ever lifted a hand on us. Our mom was more the disciplinarian in the family. He was always expressive of his affection, especially to our mom. No matter how mad my mom was, he would always just smile. He learned early, I guess, “A happy wife is a happy life. “

The greatest thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. We can all attest to that. Our mom is the biggest love of his life. From him we learned the phrases, “I love you! I miss you!” Those were always the endings of his phone conversations with my mom whenever she was in Manila. He never forgot to send us handwritten greetings on our birthdays, signing off with, “Love, Papa.” I used to take that for granted and maybe sometimes even thinking it was just a waste of paper. How I wish now, he could write me every day…

It’s almost a year now since he was hospitalized when he passed away last Feb. 28… That was a sad day for all of us yet we were also relieved that he won’t be suffering and feeling pain anymore. It was excruciating for us to watch him lie in bed, helpless, not being able to talk and move. Much as we wanted him to stay longer with us, we think he is in a better place now, in the hands of our good Lord.

Today is the last day that we will ever see our dad again physically but he will surely and never ever will be forgotten…

To the most caring, generous, charming, and funniest guy we’ll ever know… our dad. None of us can ever be proud enough of being the children of SUCH a Father who has not his equal in this world. We will forever be grateful to you. It is a huge blessing to be your children and if there’s such a thing as reincarnation, we will forever be wanting to be your children again even for a thousand million times… The Angels are there waiting, so that you would not get lost or stray. Because we’re sure that every time you looked back, you want to come home to stay. We hope that you are resting, and at peace as well. We want to say, you were “the Best Husband and DAD“ to us all… We will surely miss you and someday we will be together again.

To the relatives and friends who were with us on this journey, we wish to say thank you for all your support, your kind words, your presence,… during these difficult times. He was blessed to be with so many great people in his lifetime. We want to express our heartfelt gratitude and say thank you from the bottom of our hearts to each and every one of you for making this difficult time a little easier.