this is my maternal grandfather. this photo was taken last year in june.
instead of calling him grandfather or lolo (grandfather in tagalog) i call him tatay (tah-tie). it means father in tagalog but in my family even the grandkids call him that.
yesterday my uncle called and left me a message that tatay passed away. he didn't. it was miscommunication. i'm glad auntie called just right before i was going to post about it letting the world know how sad i was. so... yay! he's alive!
one of my favorite memories of my tatay goes like this....
i was young gal in my single digits. maybe 8 or so years old. he had just moved to the U.S. from the philippines.
tatay: "neleh, can you whistle and brush your teeth at the same time?"
me: "no tatay. you can't do that."
tatay: "yes. wanna see?"
we go to the bathroom. he takes his dentures out of his mouth and starts brushing them while whistling.
the man cracks me up til this day.
