Life is indeed fleeting and fast. I left for San Francisco last March 3 on my way to the RI Coordinators and Advisers Institute in Chicago. But I spoke to him on the phone before I left and we agreed that we would see each other when I got back from the States. I noted that there were a lot of things he could not remember anymore. I asked him how old he was and he said he didnt know but that he was born in 1920, which would make him 94 years old! No wonder he couldnt remember!!! I am talking of an old friend and colleague, Col Nazario Vita, also known to friends and family as Naning. When I came home from the States in 1969 and joined SGVs Management Services Division headed by Bobby Ongpin, Naning and I were group heads and supervising consultants. We were among the elite technocrats in the country. We had Cesar Virata (who cemae Prime Minister) Jimmy Laya (Finance Minister), Roy Navarro (Finance Minister), Gem Carague (Budget Secretary), as colleagues. Naning was an expert in operations research while I was the computer guru at the time. When Bert Pedrosa was looking for someone to head the computer services center of Meralco Securities, he first called Naning, who instead recommended me. I eventually accepted the position offered by Don Eugenio Lopez but I also recommended that they hire Naning to head a new department in Meralco which was called CSORD (Corporate Systems and Operations Research Department), while I headed MSC-CSC (Meralco Securities Corporation - Computer Services Center) which eventually became CIS or Computer Information Systems, Inc. Our paths diverged and we lost touch when I first went to the Genbank-Yujuico group to organize the Online Corporation, and later to Herdis Group where I organized SCSC (Summa Computer Services Corporation) which became the largest computer service bureau in the 70s and 80s and which I eventually bought to become the foundation of the Mega Group of Computer Companies. Recently, I joined a group in Facebook called Dating Taga Meralco. Someone asked about Naning, and so I called him, and I really was looking forward to seeing him again. But now, its too late. Hes gone! A week ago, I was told that my classmate Tony Sinsay, had suffered a massive heart attack and was in the ICU of some suburban hospital. Thirteen years ago, he had suffered a stroke just before our class New Year Party. This rendered him an invalid for the last 13 years. Several classmates chipped in to help Tony with his expenses while I let him live for free in one of my vacant apartments. Yesterday, Ricky Delgado called me asking how Tony was, offering to send money to help in Tonys expenses. So I texted Tots Romualdez since I knew he was helping Tony. He said that money was needed to keep Tony in the ICU, and he couldnt send any until Tuesday. Could I? I asked how much, and he said he would check. Then he called back, obviously shaken. He said we were too late. Tony was gone! And so I posted the following message on our eGroup: Classmates: It is with extreme sadness that I must report to you that the grim reaper has taken another one of us. Tony Sinsay passed away today after a week of being in the ICU. Funeral arrangements are being made now and will be announced shortly. Please pray for the repose of his immortal soul. Bogie Garcia But our classmate, Fidel Oming Plantilla, whos a neighbor of Bill Clinton in Chappaqua, and is known to our class as the Bard from Sleepy Hollow, came back with the following post: Classmates: I propose another kind of reaper, from today’s gospel: “...do you not say, In four months the harvest will be here? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest. The reaper is already receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together... From Blessed John Henry Newman: “The earth that we see does not satisfy us; it is but a beginning; it is but a promise of something beyond it; even when it is gayest, with all its blossoms on, and shows most touchingly what lies hid in it, yet it is not enough.” And from St. Gregory the Great: “Those who love God are ordered to rejoice and be merry at the worlds end. They will soon find him whom they love, while what they have not loved is passing away.” .... What is our mortal life except a way? Consider carefully, my friends, what sort of thing it is to grow weary with the exertions of the way, and yet to be unwilling that the way be ended!... Therefore, my friends, do not love what you see cannot long exist.” And in one of the many novenas we pray for the dead, we say: “We also beg you to help us see death for what it truly is. The end of poverty and the beginning of riches. The end of fear and the beginning of peace. The end of darkness and the beginning of unending light in you.” It is too much to say that we almost look forward to death, but while it is right to mourn Tony’s death, I am one with John Donne: “death be not proud...” Grim reaper indeed. Please pray for the repose of the souls of Naning and Tony.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 00:03:52 +0000
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