Brick 101: Lessons from My Little Brother's Life (1st installment)

40 days… seems only yesterday.

I keep telling myself, “Wala na si Brick, wala na si Brick…then say it again, “Wala na si Brick?”

It doesn’t sink in and I doubt it ever will…

Brick has brought so much meaning to our lives much more now in his death…

If I could write a book dedicated to him, it would be entitled “Brick 101: Lessons learned from my little brother’s life”

I said this before and I’ll say it again: Brick has lived a full life.

It is not to find comfort in the thought that his life was short-lived. I hear some people say “What a waste” or “sayang” but I would respond by making them see all his photos…

They say a picture paints a thousand words and so it does with Brick’s albums.

I tell Papa and Mama that Brick was ready to go. I just learned last night from mama that Brick had a flight to Japan where almost all of the flight crew members’ inserted a piece of paper in their mouths with their farewells to their loved-ones, thinking that it was their final flight.

Maybe it was these incidents that prepared him. He had a job that exposed him to the possibility of death….everyday.  He was no longer afraid to die. In Paulo Coelho’s words, “and afterwards saw death as a daily companion, who is always by my side, saying:” I will touch you, but you don’t know when. Therefore live life as intensely as you can.”

That is what Brick did. He visited and traveled to as many interesting places as he can. Most of the time, took papa and mama with him. He had this threesome date with them and proved three was not a crowd.

These dates were a conscious effort on his part because it was a challenge to make free time. I keep telling papa, not too many sons can do these for their own parents…in their own lifetime. He made sure you had a fun time and he made sure we laughed…

He lived each day as if it were his last. He tried to make all relationships he was in to be memorable, unforgettable…he invested much of himself, his whole person in every friendship.

In Manila, I learned just recently, that the pulot-boys in his tennis club all made it to the wake. Mama said that some took a seat and cried…

There were his labandera, owner of a carenderia where he rented in Baclaran, where he stayed a few years. His landlord and landlady were also there…all cried before his coffin.