As the Baguio Chronicle does not really run obits, I am taking up my own company-provided space here to put forth an obit to a friend of mine, who sadly died at the stroke of midnight (roughly) at the tailend of last week, just as we had closed the paper for the week—hence, the weird timing.
Kasi (profanity) mo Dabid, masyado mo sineryoso yung “una na ako.”
I had the great pleasure of meeting Dave—David Adornado—through the gaming community I had been invited to by someone I consider family, and my memory of him has always been the rabble rouser, the brash giant whose mouth would spew the vilest of humorous things, and whose heart would always bleed of kindness for others.
Sadly, my spotty memory can only remember very select Dave-isms, and this is a fact I will despair about for the rest of my life, for as long as I remember to despair.
While I cannot remember the words, I can remember fondly how they felt, that feeling of walang kwentang usapan magdamag, of clutching at your ribs because of how stupid-funny the conversations are, and knowing that if I were to somehow recall the exact words and put them on this column, I would become jobless immediately.
Sadly, my spotty memory can only remember very select Dave-isms, and this is a fact I will despair about for the rest of my life
Malakas manglait, we’d say. He was great at the art of the lait, and when this was compounded with the fact that certain other people in the group were also amazing at this artform, the resonance cascade would cause everyone to collapse in tears of laughter, when the stars and the jokes aligned.
And I feel that there are cases where appearance and aesthetics belie the truth of a person, and that he exemplifies that. At his wake, there were a few eulogies of how threatening the man seemed. The guy is definitely large and menacing, with enough mass that he could probably paste you into a wall with a tackle.
Couple that with his sense of humor, which goes past the line of public acceptability at a frequent rate, and the package is intimidating.
But we all knew the truth was the opposite—this was a man who could and would fight if needed, but would rather just protect those around him, even people he personally disliked but had done nothing wrong to void that warranty of protection.
This was a man who would for some reason choose to shoulder the burden of everything alone where he could—noble and flawed as that was, for better or worse.
I have memories of him randomly messaging me, asking for small sums of money – just enough for half a day or a day’s worth of expenses, accompanied by profuse and genuine apologies for needing, for daring to need a little help to get through the day.
In fact, one of my regrets is that the last conversation we had was exactly this, where he insisted that he would pay me back even when I said it was okay – money is money, but still, come on man, it was okay.
Consider it my donation, Dabid. Rest in peace, dust that you are. Pamasahe mo na sa langit yun.
