A humble epilogue "To Never Forget" - I (An Ode to Friendship)

It was with high anticipation that this writer and his lady arrived early for the special invitation of Dr. Jose “Dodong” R. Gullas for the launching of his memoir “To Never Forget”. Stressing the modal theme, that is, to remember always, the infinitive sign “To” is followed by key adverb “Never” between “To” and “Forget”. Thus, instead of saying “Never To Forget”, it registers a more graphic sound-byte and softly persuasive to say “To Never Forget”.

Ever-pleasant host Dodong warmly welcomed early arrivals with sincere thank you for honoring his invite. The “shocker” came when he said “Apil ka sa akong libro” in reference to his memoir. Unknowing yet what he meant, one just mumbled with a meek thank you.

It was all a total shocker when later in the grandiose evening of songs and hilarity with the still impressive voices of Pilita Corrales and Susan Fuentes – and of the famous UV Chorale – one hurriedly schemed over the given complimentary copy of “To Never Forget”.

In early pages 14 and 15 under the caption “Deep Friendships”, one’s seemingly casual friendship – as Dodong Gullas has thousands and more friends and, in his words “I tried to be friendly with everyone, and many wanted to be my friends” – has turned out being valued deeply until now. Never in one’s wildest dream that the youngest son of the venerable and respected UV owners, has after all these years, considered the son of humble school teachers as one in “deep friendship”.

Indeed, since Junior and Senior high school days, one took pride as Dodong’s classmate as others were, but silently conscious of his “short and simple annals of the poor” status, and one refrained from gravitating to him always. In fact, there had been earlier times of wondering if his friendship and humility were that true and sincere, although such traits have indeed been proved in time as innately steadfast. Not condescending or mere elitist patronizing.

When he became the Corps Commander of the high school Pre-Military Training (PMT), it was he who convinced me to be a Cadet Officer, as one preferred to be just in the cadet ranks to avoid further expenses, or just time-consuming. Humility aside, as one of the chosen squad to take the theoretical exams during the annual tactical inspection, perhaps one had contributed a small bit for the overall results that landed the UV PMT at the top.

Like a bullet train of thoughts and feelings, one now recalls that in high school graduation, as president of the senior class organization, one persuaded the other officers in picking the then “arsenic” Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson as commencement speaker. While President Gullas wanted Pres. Elpidio Quirino, his classmate of the later famous 1911 Manila High School class, for the entire school’s commencement speaker; Dodong must have had convinced his old man to go with Mayor Lacson. Page 14 of the memoir shows Dodong in white suit during our high school graduation, as agreed upon.

That’s another facet of Dodong, that is, he listens to the opinions or wishes of his friends and comrades and not impose his will, a sign of his “giving” way or accommodating spirit, and of his humility and selflessness then.

The third paragraph of “Deep Friendships” draws one’s special attention to Dodong’s humble personality. “If pride was ever a thing with us, it only showed at home. Among ourselves, our family took pride in not being proud. I soon learned that genuine humility meant being unaware of it. By vigorously encouraging it, however, our parents also taught us that it was a good thing to be humble”. This encapsulates the Gullas family virtues.

Briefly reminiscing now, one’s limited experience with their family, the key sentence “Among ourselves we took pride in not being proud”, is the priceless legacy and nugget of wisdom that all Visayanians have always learned from them on the value of humility. And that, “genuine humility meant being unaware of it” has been the cornerstone of their family’s relationship with their fellow beings, especially the lowly.

(To be continued)