Events: From Dubai with Love

When you love someone, the feeling is Always there whether the loved one is here, there or anywhere. This is primarily true with my only daughter Jingle who went out of her way to get permission from her Boss to spend some quality time with me when I was on a stopover at Dubai International Airport from Amman, Jordan to Manila. Truth is, Jingle is the daughter of my younger brother Loy who succumbed to throat cancer at the age of 38. Since then, Jingle has always looked up to me as her Dad and I have considered her as my only daughter. As a matter of fact, she is in my Will with my only sister Elizabeth in Orange County, California USA, who I know really cares for me.

NDB's Albert Rile with his only daughter Jingle at Dubai International Airport.*

Lately, when Jingle came home to attend the graduation of her nephew JM, I had to drag myself out of bed so very early in the morning to be at Silay- Bacolod International Airport at 5:30AM for her 5:50AM- arrival. She looked exhausted and famished just as I did when I was in Dubai, so I took her to Bobs for a big breakfast. She mentioned that she must have looked like me when she met me at their duty free shop where she works as a Supervisor. However, all that feeling of starvation and exhaustion were gone once we met and we were both happy together!

I am aware that I had offended my only daughter a few times before as she too, had her shortcomings but we were- still are- always quick to forgive and forget. Why, love is not only sacrifice, it also tantamount to overlooking one’s fault.

A couple of days after her arrival, her favourite Maninay/ Tita Tata Seva Cu treated both of us to a welcome home lunch at Max’s in SM. She from Dubai and me from that memorable pilgrimage from the Holy Land. We had a wonderful time recalling those good old days, just bonding. Then, her Maninay went shopping with her and bought her those pretty and expensive blouses and pants while I just looked around, sort of window shopping. When we reached the car (after she thanked and kiss her god mother so long), she confessed that for the first time in her life, she felt the love a mother. Being our god daughter, my best friend (who is like my sister) Tata considers her as her daughter too as she has two well behaved sons by her beloved husband Ramon Cu.

Day before her departure back to Dubai (she was only given a two- week vacation), I treated her and her biological mother, my brother’s wife Nene Guanzon Rile to lunch at Pendy’s with her Maninay/ Tita Tata. I gave Tata a copy of our picture at Dubai Airport for her two sons to see their beautiful big sister.

While it is true that my only daughter got to spend some time with immediate members of her family, we got to enjoy some quality time here and Dubai. It’s all because of our father- daughter relationship and our emails always end with “Love and Kisses,” like what my late Tatay and I had each time we wrote each other while I was finishing college at good old University of San Carlos in Cebu and he was with the family in Manila. There is ALWAYS love between us in Dubai, Bacolod or the US or anywhere!