Tribute to Tatay William Launio

I thank God for the 17 years of knowing tatay., 15 years that he stood as my dad since Daddy Domingo died. I felt his love for Khane, Chairo, and Kharece. His many sharing of stories, skills, and experiences left great memories for Khane and Chairo through all those brief summer breaks in Malanac. They probably had no memories with Lolo Domingo who died when Khane was 2 days short of turning 2yo. But they had fantastic and life-changing memories with their “tatay”!enough first-hand memories for making the word “tatay” so endearing. More than anything, I thank God for his molding and raising the man I now call husband in the context of his given circumstances. By God’s providence and plan, he is now the head of our small family, navigating how to raise his children the way tatay has trained him but in the context of this generation and the Reformed Christian worldview he believes in. I thank God that he raised his son wonderfully, accepted me, and is the grandfather of my children. Even now for me, I close my eyes and think of memories of tatay and his characteristic smile or grin when he is cracking a joke is vivid and unforgettable. He, bringing inside something he cooked and setting it on the table in the dining table at Malanac, is a classic memory, not only because it is something I can vividly picture if I close my eyes, but more so because it replays the stories Marlon has many times shared about him prioritizing his children on matters of securing food and eating as a family. I picture him in his cowboy hat, happy for his children, his children’s children. Writing this, I am teary-eyed already, just thinking that in the next long vacation, when it is time for the boys to go home to Malanac and experience life, he will not be there. It is very unimaginable and so painful a thought. The classic voice of Kharece saying “where is tatay?” I cannot bear to hear. But such is life, there is death, because of the biblical truth of the fallen nature of man. And such is death, you can never be prepared for it. Yet in life and in death, there is hope eternal. Tatay struggled to succumb to this hope, yet in the end, he succumbed to it by God’s grace and mercy. That is enough comfort. That is enough comfort.-ccl//

(Tatay William Saroy Launio died on Nov. 17 and was buried Nov. 25, 2024)