Roberto S. Madamba

Remembering daddy Roberto Zamora S. Madamba, today on his 21st death anniversary.

He died on July 10, 2000 at age 47 years old.  He had lung cancer.  He would be forever young.  At the time of his death, he was the special assistant to the General Manager of the Philippine Ports Authority.  From eulogies of co-workers at his wake, I gathered that he was effective and quite efficient in his work and that he could write up reports in an hour that other people took a week to complete in his absence.  I just wonder what his work advice for me would be today, had he lived.

I remember a lot of things about him, mostly the good ones - staying up late tinkering on projects at the dinner table, be it my project calendar or his model airplanes... I remember having my first Motorola cellphone in college, it was mainly to call him when I had difficulties with my subjects ...how patient and understanding he was when I cried at flunking my organic chemistry exam, saying "everything happens for a reason..." Many times I couldn't understand his advice but they are very applicable nowadays. We shared a love for Japanese food, he loved how "wasabe" cleared his sinuses!  

He would comfort me by saying "you're not fat" but then buying a whole sack of cabbage on his next trip to Baguio so that i could go on my cabbage diet - eating cabbage with corned beef or cabbage with potatoes, or cabbage with sardines and a hundred other ways to cook cabbage to be full without gaining weight.

In the end, I realized that I also shared daddy's fear of pain.  He feared pain more than he feared death.  He even prayed for death as an end to all those sufferings.  It was because of those sleepless nights comforting him in his pain that I decided to become a doctor so that I would never ever feel helpless again. Being at peace with the people who mattered the most to him, I believe he was ready to die.  No more pain, daddy.  

We always wonder what life would have been like if you were here, or what you would have thought about our life today.  Just like online communication, we know you are with us and can hear us, even though it gets difficult for us to receive a reply. So I am sending this message to the universe to know that you are remembered and  cherished and loved.  Please take a moment to include him in your prayers for the eternal repose of his soul.  Rest in peace, daddy.