Emiliano Austria

On Thursday, July 9, 2020, Emiliano Rosagas Austria, beloved father, husband, brother, uncle, and new grandfather, passed away in Houston, Texas at the age of 66 from complications with a heroic fight with congestive heart failure.

Emiliano was born on February 8, 1954, in Paniqui, Tarlac, Philippines, the fifth-born and fourth-surviving child of Felix Palaganas Austria and Victorina Rosagas Austria.

As a young child, he was known to be kind, caring, honest, soft spoken, and intelligent. Overwhelmingly, his siblings remember him as an ingenious inventor. He was a devourer and conjurer of the written word, reading books, writing poems, and telling stories. Some of his poems and skits were even published in comic magazines in the Philippines. He had a green thumb even in his early years, planting different kinds of vegetables that would flourish.

During high school, his intelligence -- especially in math -- shone through. He enjoyed spirited debate, and was known to go to the classroom chalkboard to correct his teacher’s math calculations. In between his studies, Emil collected all the Beatles magazines and songbooks he could find, playing and singing song after song on his guitar. He even conscripted his two younger brothers, Albino and Tito, to form a Beatles cover band.

Emil received a scholarship to attend college at Far Eastern University in Manila, Philippines, but family challenges forced him to discontinue his studies.

He joined and became a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, dedicating his life to spiritual service and enriching the lives of many.

He worked tirelessly to pay his way and eventually return to college, spending his days as a laborer and laundryman, and journeyed throughout the province on motorbike as a collector for an appliance store. With the support of his siblings, he graduated with his accounting degree from Dr. Nicanor Reyes Memorial College in Paniqui, Tarlac in 1978. He passed the national Certified Public Accountant (CPA) board exam in 1979 with top scores and began working at one of the top firms in the country, SyCip Gorres & Velayo Co (SGV).

Through a mutual acquaintance, he met the love of his life, Eulivia Binamira Rivero, and married on August 30, 1982. His first two daughters, Rachell and Diana, were born, and the family settled in San Pedro, Laguna, Philippines.

In 1987, in pursuit of better opportunities to support their growing family, Emil supported his wife in her difficult decision to move to the U.S. to work as a nurse. He had been working as a branch manager for the Philippine division of General Motors, but left his position to return to his childhood home in Paniqui, Tarlac to raise Rachell and Diana alongside their grandmother, titos, titas, and cousins. He rekindled his entrepreneurial spirit of invention, and he made and sold his own laundry soap, shampoo, and peanut butter.

Having been apart from his wife for five years, Emil and his daughters moved to Toronto, Canada in 1991, reuniting with Eulivia and the newest addition to the family, their third daughter Alexandra. There, he got his first taste of North American winter. Shortly after, Emil and his family moved to Houston, Texas in 1992, where his wife had an opportunity to pursue a new full-time job opportunity as a nurse.

Although he yearned to gain U.S. credentials to resume his accounting career, he always put his family first and worked hard in food service jobs that enabled him to take care of his three young children and support his family while his wife was working long graveyard hours as a nurse. His work was often grueling and even dangerous, but he persevered. He eventually transitioned to work for the US Postal Service as a mail processing clerk for over a decade. His daughters remember him poring over maps and memorizing zip codes in his spare time to be the best he could at his job. Afterwards, he brought humor, warmth, and dedication to the countless customers he served in his nearly ten years working as a cashier at a local Walmart store, before retiring in Spring 2018. Within only a few months, he enjoyed a double celebration of his retirement and the doctoral graduation of his eldest daughter, Dr. Rachell Austria Nguyen.

In between his many jobs and caring for his family, he continued to enjoy creating things, tinkering with gadgets, and inventing -- he was a master of the DIY, from starting vegetable gardens in the backyard, fixing (at times unsuccessfully) the old family car, or reimagining the spark plug. His calming presence brought serenity and stability to his family, occasionally offering advice to his daughters via email or text, always ending such messages with “Love you, anak (child).”

Emil loved nature and, when he could, enjoyed traveling to see beautiful cities and natural landmarks. He dreamt of working his way through every US National Park. Emil loved delicious food (especially desserts), watching Western films and World War 2 documentaries, and listening to his favorite songs -- from VST & Company and the Manila Sound era of 1970’s Philippines to classic folk and rock artists such as the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and Freddie Aguilar.

Throughout his whole life, he enjoyed reading, staying on top of current events, and writing -- in 2016, he fulfilled his dream of publishing a manuscript, 100 Short Stories From My Customers, a collection of short autobiographical vignettes of interactions with customers, drawing from his personal experience as a Walmart store cashier. Reflective of his personality, 100 Short Stories is economical in its prose yet achieves poetic sensibility within its ethnographic observations, continuing the tradition of Filipino American workers’ testimony most famously inaugurated by Carlos Bulosan.

In what would be his final international journey, Emil was able to visit his hometown in December 2019 and reunite with his siblings, old friends, and family members one last time in the Philippines this past holiday season. At one point during this trip, he insisted on taking his family to see the Hundred Islands National Park, a beautiful miniature archipelago in Pangasinan best experienced by boat. When he and his family arrived, they learned that the boat was not large enough to hold the entire family, and he immediately volunteered to stay behind. Over his family’s protestations, he explained that he never intended on boarding the boat on account of his health, but he wanted his family to see the same sparkling islands that he saw when he was a young man, a memory he had cradled within himself for decades, and never re-experienced since. He watched his family push off the docks, waving to his wife and daughters as they got to experience what the heart in his chest was denying him, yet the heart in his soul smiled ever brighter, because this was the kind of man he was. He lived to give. And his family will never forget the love, generosity, and kindness with which he took every step in the world.

Emiliano is survived by this wife of nearly 38 years, Eulivia Rivero Austria; his children, Rachell (Nguyen) and husband Nam Nguyen, Diana (Rivera) and husband Takeo Rivera, and Alexandra; his grandson, Noah Dominguez; his siblings, Candida (Macaraeg), Donata (Devera) and husband Jaime Devera, Macrina (Fernandez) and husband Alvin Fernandez, Albino and wife Nelia (De Jesus Mercado), and Jacinto and wife Isabelita (Facun); his nieces and nephews, Remedios, Rustico Jr, Rhodalyn, Jeffrey, Gerald, Graciela, Djohanna (Dela Cruz) and husband Phillip Dela Cruz, Michelle (Fernandez), and Jezreel Ivan; his grandnieces and grandnephews, Kathleen, Carlo, Ayana, Laura May and son Yohan, Ethan Gabriel, Sean Phillip, and Zack Skyler; and many cousins, extended family members, and friends. He was preceded by his parents, brother Demetrio, and sister Rosa.