Yesterday was Father’s Day. One of the best tributes to American Fathers is broadcast journalist Tim Russert’s book, "Wisdom of Our Fathers (Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons)." The book is available in most bookstores and of course at www.Amazon.com.

Actually our literary group came up with a similar idea way back in 1999 when we published in the now defunct www.Yimby.com several articles about the wisdom of our Filipino elders. In fact, I wrote a piece about my uncle, Jose S. Reyes, and his group called "The Seven Wise Men" of the 1935 Philippine Constitutional Convention. You can read more about Dr. Reyes and his fellow Wise Men in Part II of my article on "More-than a Century of Filipino Writing in English" at this link http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/191/51/

We wanted to do a series of articles consisting also of eulogies and narratives about Filipino fathers (and eventually Filipino mothers) and their lessons passed on to their scions in the www.Yimby.com. But as fate would have it, its webmaster, Bill Saunders, died. He took to his grave the passwords to the Yimby.com and to the server that hosted the web site. While my son, Jose B. L. Reyes, was paying then for the fees of the webmaster, the Register.com registration of the domain name and the server, we could not do anything as we could not crack Mr. Saunder’s password. To date, I keep on renewing the registration of the Yimby.com, as fortunately I was designated as the "Administrative Contact" in the Register.com and my e-mail address, appears as the contact screen name.

We now accept contributions from readers about the lessons from their departed father, uncles, grandparents or other ascendants. We will place them in the Obituary Section of the MabuhayRadio.com.

Readers may want to start by giving one-liners about the motto or lesson of their departed ancestors. An example is the motto of the late Dr. Conrado R. Pascual, Sr., that I published in "Reinventing the Filipino Diet" article. Dr. Pascual’s motto was "Give until it hurts." You can read more of Dr. Pascual and his motto in this link http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/186/51/

My father, Dominador S. Reyes (1909-2000), gave this advice, "A thing is good only when it can be had." I will eventually post my eulogy to him in this website. I wrote the eulogy, which was entitled, "The Birdman of Bulusan Has Flown to the Blue Yonder." Depending on my time, I will also post the eulogy that I wrote for Dr. Perry Calica (please see an earlier write up at http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/25/51/) and other friends who have passed away in the same Obit Page.

Then there was the favorite adage of my now-deceased father-in-law, Estanislao "Vigan" de los Reyes, the youngest son of the late Isabelo "Don Belong" de los Reyes. Papa Vigan said, "Nobody can put a good man down."

Readers may post the motto of their departed father or ancestor directly at the Users’ Comments Section of this site (found at the end of any article). Or they can send their full-length articles to this writer at for proofreading or editing and posting.

Eventually we hope to emulate Mr. Russert and publish our collection of mottos and lessons from our elders into a book by a similar title (of course with the adjective, Filipino, before Fathers). Perhaps by Father’s Day 2009, the first volume of our book may come off the press. # # #

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