Nestorio Torralba Bago

Lolo Turing to many of us was a very exuberant man.

He brought joy and excitement, every time he arrived from the Visayas.

The ancestral home lit up, every time he arrived.

He is a great story teller and his stories reflected his attitude in life. I never saw him unhappy - for him all setbacks are opportunities.

He had done many death defying acts, making him my childhood hero.

For me, he is the original Indiana Jones!

He told us how he escaped from the Bataan Death March, pretending dead and rolling into a cliff. From there he walked to his home in Batangas very frail and thin.

He also told us this story of him riding a runaway train! He had to jump from this fast running train to save his life ...

How he curled hairs of women using flat iron during the Japanese time to earn a living and put food on the table

and many more ....

Once he told us that he was offered an assistant superintendent position, he refused.

He continued serving a small agricultural school in Samar as its supervisor ... until lawless persons barged in and killed him.

We were all shocked and aghast and tears poured for days ... we lost a loving son, father, uncle, grandfather ...

Lolo Ikong, his father, frail in his 90s, a very silent man, burst into tears and said "Bakit ikaw pa ang kinuha ... hindi ako". This broke my heart and the dam that I had been building, burst and broke ... something inside me died forever. As I write this, I grieve again.

From then on, I have not been keen on seeing loved ones inside a box.

I would like to remember them smiling down at me as I kiss their hands and happily telling stories on our long wooden antique table in our old bahay na bato.