Oh, My Papa

This was a dream I had before I woke up this morning:

We were in what looked like the cove just beyond the 'punta' in Hamoraon. This cove had white beach and crystal clear waters. Caroline, Cecil's sister, was sitting in the sand holding something, an heirloom obviously, which looked like a cross between a genie's lamp and something used for a table setting. She was brooding because a part of it got lost in the sea. I told her and the young man she was with, I would look for what was missing soon. When the time was right for me, which was soon after anyway, I went in the clear waters and swam around what looked like a low, sort of cylindrical coral rock and saw a piece of printed white and aqua cloth caught under one edge. I took it and waved to them and showed it from where I was. The cloth became two pieces , one of a different color, which was what they saw first. I had to make sure they saw the right one. True enough, when I got ashore, which was really a very short distance, they were happy I found what they lost, which I thought was only a part, but which actually had a fold which hid the metal part, and thus was the complete missing part. I then bragged to my mother, who was in the water with others I can't remember, 'See, Ma, somebody (in the sea) loves me (and helped me).'

I then found myself in a fast boat with Brenda and Carlos Talisaysay, friends from our association. We were in Canada waters, in what the visuals in my dream only allowed to be seen like a long canal with deep blue waters. Carlos only had a very small space to sit on and when a space came up next to Brenda, he got up to go there and almost lost his balance. We then got to a more familiar area where the boat stopped. It was in Hamoraon, at the beach in front of our house. I automatically checked whether the water was still clean and clear. It was much deeper, and the color scary deep blue so close to the shore, but nonetheless still passably clear, though not as before.

Carlos and Brenda walked ahead towards our house. I was still marveling at the height of the mounds of sand and pebbles which I knew was created by the strong 'habagat' waves which pushed them from the depths of the ocean floor. It was strange for me that what I last saw as a flat beach now had mountains of pink sand and white pebbles and our house was on a higher elevation. Our house seemed different. It looked like the second house we used to have, made entirely of wood, although still not like it, and it was really empty. In one of the bedrooms, when I opened the door, I saw Papa who was surprised at seeing us. I was so happy to see him, and we kissed and I wouldn't let him go until I was able to hug him. Then, Karl, who turned out was with me, the five or six year old Karl, went and kissed him and hugged him, too, and wouldn't let him go until he got kisses on both cheeks. All the time, I could see Papa's hesitance in his eyes. When I turned to check the rest of the house (I could hear the voices of Brenda and Carlos) was when I realized I was just dreaming and that Papa was no longer in Hamoraon. I felt sad.

Then I woke up from the dream.

Yesterday afternoon, I told Kara that Karl's other grandpa gave him some money for Christmas and I asked her what I would do with it. Of course, thoughts of Karl and his father occupied my mind after that. It must have been these that triggered the dream. I couldn't bring Karl to see his own father so I brought him to my father instead. In pondering how Karl must be missing his father in his life, I was brought to the fact that I still miss my own dear father, too.

OH, MY PA-PA

Oh, my pa-pa, to me he was so wonderful
Oh, my pa-pa, to me he was so good
No one could be, so gentle and so lovable
Oh, my pa-pa, he always understood.

Gone are the days when he could take me on his knee
And with a smile he'd change my tears to laughter
Oh, my pa-pa, so funny, so adorable
Always the clown so funny in his way.

Oh, my pa-pa, to me he was so wonderful
Deep in my heart I miss him so today.