The Giving Tree

We used to have two langka trees just outside my old bedroom. I remember my father planting them a few meters apart so that when they grow, we can tie a hammock around the trunks and spend lazy summer afternoons under their shade. I don’t remember managing to do that as I was then already studying and then working in Manila when the trees grew big enough to support a hammock. I remember though that the fruits were so sweet.

About a month or so after my father was diagnosed with cancer (stage 3 or 4 though we did not know it yet then), I was standing in the backyard wondering about the future. It was looking bleak. My dad has lost a LOT of weight and I was fearing for the worst.To me, he looked like he was dying and I was scared.

Looking up, I saw the twin trees and hazy, crazy stories from my childhood came to mind. Tentatively, I approached one of the trees, touched its trunk and whispered: “Tree, for several years, my father loved and took care of you. He may now be dying. Will you give up your life for him so that he could live longer?”. One week later, the tree started losing its leaves and soon died. Everyone was wondering why it died considering that its twin was pretty healthy. I did not tell anyone of what I did.

Did the tree give up its life so my dad could live longer? I don’t know. He died seven months after. It was pneumonia that did him in.It could have been a coincidence but it was realy weird that it died shortly after I “talked” to it.Five years after my dad’s death, the twin lives until it too, died.

Happy father’s day, daddy. I miss you.