I remember when I was 18, telling or rather yelling at my dad, my papa, after he told me to learn from him....learn from his mistakes, that how could I ever learn from his mistakes or his experiences because they were not mine?!!? Now, years later, I think of those words and with some regret wished that I would have listened to him. However, I know now that I am who I am today because of my experiences and my past and I am grateful to my father for giving me those words of wisdom.

I have thought of my father a lot these past couple of weeks as we have been on our Grand SW Adventure. I guess his words and face have haunted my thoughts as soon as I saw my older siblings in CO. I even had a dream about him, and that has never happened before. I think because it is close to 4th of July, seeing old friends and family, being around strong men that were from that Great Generation and then talking with my friend, Matt, about him, has made me realized that I need to do something.... I need to write down my memories of him and of his life. Oh, my father had an amazing life stretching from the first world war through a depression, surviving a death march and then torturous Japanese. Then, marrying a Japanese woman and surviving 2 more girls on top of all that!! Can you tell that I miss him? Yet I know that he is near, perching maybe on a cloud with my babies, waiting and laughing and praying, as he watches over me with our Father in Heaven, sometimes quite possibly shaking his head in disbelief and muttering something in tagalog..."Inako"... Waiting ever waiting as I learn from my own experiences.