Farewell to a brother

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Roger S. Sinot

If life is a book, one has to consider that each chapter has to be consumed wisely. The word “consume” in business concept means to “do away with” completely or to “spend wastefully.” In reading books, we do not consume them. We do not burn books after reading them. In that sense, books do not cease to exist after we have read them. In fact, they become part of us. Books change us. Some say life experience is a metaphor. We are like pilgrims in this world traveling towards a heavenly home that will be beyond description. Along the way however, the cares and burdens of journey can rob us of our hopes and happiness. We become distressed travelers in desperate need of encouragements and refreshments along the way.

Death in the family left us with misery. It brings to one’s feeling a slice in life like a tsunami of sorrow. My way back to my brother’s funeral was a long winding travel from Solano, Nueva Viscaya to my Baguio hometown. Passing thru Bobok, Bokod, Benguet, I noticed the mountain forests were burned. These mountains were once victims of fires that burned thousands of saplings and matured Pine trees. One can only see scorched remnants of the trees and vegetation. This makes one think that the burning of trees and the death of a love one have no sense anymore.

            

In my family of seven, Robert “Don Roberto de Baka” Sinot as jokingly described in Kayapa was the fourth sibling of four brothers and three sisters. My eldest brother Wesley Jr. and Robert had their own jeepneys that they earned money with, during their high school days. At ages 18 and 15, respectively, they drove and operated AC Type jeepneys for the Guisad-Plaza route in the 70s. So they had income while going to Easter School. Both of them were considered “born with a silver spoon.”

They had fun with their barkadas instead of attending high school. They got drunk in all the affairs and gatherings of the family. They also fought like dog and cat. When our mother Feliza was fed up, she sent Robert to Nueva Viscaya to take charge of the pasture land and herd cattle at the young age of 15. Robert lived a good rich life in Baan. With his best friend Castillo “Togo” Tidang Jr. who later became lawyer and mayor of Kayapa, he mismanaged the pasture land. He ended up selling his properties, including the pastureland and the cattle. At the age of 40, he had already lived his life to the fullest, according to him.

           

If a life span is one whole day with a morning and an afternoon, Robert felt like he had already spent his life in the morning and not minding that there is still the afternoon. His life was that of a grasshopper in the parable of the grasshopper and the ant. Never mind tomorrow for tomorrow might not come. In Ibaloi, we say “piyasta ni ulay.” In high school during vacation time, I saw to it that I went to Nueva Vizcaya to assist in changing rotten wood posts and repair of the boundary fences of the whole 100-hectare pasture land, or else, the cows would go out and feast on the palay and damage the neighbor’s farmlands. Instead of manning the repairs, Robert goes with his friends to fiestas and cockfights, leaving us cowboys to do the repairs. He lived an easy life, easily swayed to butchering his cows even without an occasion, just for his friends.   

            

In his life’s travels, he left us with many unfinished projects in connection with our properties. But all I can say is “Bon Voyage my brother.” Your departure was untimely. You cannot wait for me to do the repairs. You have left this world and you are now together with Wesley Jr., Joseph and Lily to a new and better world, to a place where one does not have to spend money to look for Yamashita’s gold, for all that you walk and step on now is pure gold. Just be one of God’s cowboys because I know that God is also a cowboy at heart, as the song goes. Bon Voyage Amigo and farewell big brother.

            

I want to give my deepest gratitude to those who came to Robert’s wake, to our relatives and friends who did the “dongdong-aws” and “pawpaw-its,” to C/Insp. Alberto R. Tapiru Jr. and his staff for making my last visit to Robert’s burial possible. Thank you very much and more power. May God Bless and keep us all safe on our trails to His pastureland above. - RDS