WHAT A SMALL WORLD

Dear Auntie Patti Koh,

Remember I told you that I went at the downtown Chicago with my two favorite nephews with me and wanted to unwind and stroll around and see the many projects and dvelopements that has been done in Chicago which is trying to vie for the venue of the summer Olympics.

My nephew with eyeglasses, who just graduated from Nursing back home in Pinas, is his first time in Chicago and so I was showing him around and the other nephew of mine is studying at the Dowtown Chicago School of Music and Cinema Production.

We were strolling around the financial district and it was so dammned cold. The sun was shining but the cold breeze is coming from Lake Michigan and is really cold. I was taking the picture and my hands is freezing. While the two boys was posing infront of the Sears Tower, this old man approached me and asked me if I was a Filipino. He was such a nice man and immediately answered with pride, that I am a Filipino-American.

His name was James and he told us that he was in Olongapo, Philippines during the Vietnam War because he was in the navy. He was telling many stories about his many nice and good experiences everytime his ship comes to dock at Olongapo Bay and then they will be given their Liberty to go ashore and enjoy the night life in Olongapo. He said he retired from the Navy but still wanted to work, so he is still working at the Sears Tower Maintenance. Then I told him that my dad was a survivor of the infamous Death March in the Philippines, attached to the U.S.Army. He hugged me and told me that he admired those heroes of the Bataan Death March. He was telling my two nephews about the war and was telling both of them to be good and be proud of their heritage.

You know, Auntie Patti Koh.... hearing such good comments from a man like James, an African-American, gives me the greatest pleasure. After all those years, he still remembers and still respects my father, who is still alive and retired in the Philippines, and now age 89 years old. I told James that my nephew who is working as a private nurse in the Western Suburbs will always be passing my the Sears Tower because his Metropolitan train stop is only ablock away from the Sears Tower, will always pass by and look for him. He likes it very much and said will look for it.

Each of us gave James a big hug and bid him farewell and told him that we will always look for him everytime we pass by the downtown area and at the Sear Tower.