Friday, September 14, 2018
Ito, I wasn't given the opportunity at your service to read the eulogy I had written for you, so I figured I would share it here:
Ito, our relationship was never perfect, and I have come to realize that that’s okay. I mean, the reality of it is that you took in two little girls - Christina at the age of 2, and myself at the age of 1 - as if they were your own. That within itself speaks volumes about the man you truly were. As kids, I remember Ma putting me and my sisters to bed, and you coming to wake me up after Ma would fall asleep saying, “Viv, wake up and come watch a movie with me - I got us some munchies.”
I also remember the times when Chris and I would be playing in our room while we were supposed to be sleeping, and you would come in with the belt threatening us and making the belt do that loud smacking noise to scare us - even though you would never end up hitting us. We all know you were too much of a softee for that. Instead, you would go back to the living room to watch TV, keeping the belt right next to you because of course, you knew that you were going to have to threaten us more than once before we actually listened and went to sleep. Then of course there was that one time that you decided to go to the bathroom but you left the belt on the couch, so I ran out of bed and told Chris, “Watch what I’m gna do," and I grabbed the belt off the couch and hid it from you. And then of course you went and got Ma. Anytime you did that, Chris and I knew we messed up. I remember all of us going for car rides and listening to music. You always knew all the lyrics to every song and I remember thinking you were so cool for that (weird, I know). Those are just a couple of my favorite memories, and those are the things I want to remember you by.
“Everyone knows they’re going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did we would do things differently.” This is one of my favorite quotes, and it comes from a book called “Tuesdays With Morrie.” I have this quote written on my IG bio, which I purposely did to remind myself not to take things for granted. Things like time and meaningful relationships, because as we all know, tomorrow isn’t promised.
I love you Ito.
