IN MEMORIAM
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Brod Leonardo “Nards” Santos Taggueg UP Los Banos ’65 December 27, 1947 - March 30, 2013
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eulogy by Brod Vic Ramos, ’62 UPD He came home after retirement to renew ties with old friends and brods, revive the memories of his youth and trace the terrain of his old home. Instead on Holy Saturday God unexpectedly called him to his Kingdom. How else could he have received God’s call?
He must have felt like the poet who wrote:
“And then I find myself crossing the river, I've fought life's final war with pain And then as death gave way to victory I saw the lights of glory and I knew He lives.”
Such was the reward received by our brother Leonardo Santos Taggueg upon seeing our Good Lord when he was ushered into His kingdom. We will miss him but we rejoice in the thought that he has found peace with God.
I first met Brod Nards in Seattle when I came for a visit as the frat’s alumni president. I was inviting brods from all chapters to come home for the fraternity’s diamond jubilee in 2006 (60 years, British style). He was assigned by Brod Cosme Santiago, alumni president of the Northwest US chapter, to take care of me for a day while I was there. Nards gave me a morning tour of the massive Boeing plant where he worked. In the afternoon he gave me a feel of the country side as we motored to a promontory overlooking the Pacific Ocean where we ate lunch. We had Ilocano food -- jumping shrimps (lagdaw in Ilocano) that we bought on the roadside and pinakbet from his kitchen. We felt like we were in his home province of Isabela overlooking the same expanse of ocean that connects the Philippines with the continental US.
Immediately he struck me as the kind of brod that you would like to spend the day with. He was jolly and full of stories. I asked about his transformation from a forester to a plane maker. He explained that when he migrated to Seattle, he realized that Boeing was the biggest employer in town. So, he applied with the company like everybody else. As expected, the interviewer asked about his experience with aircrafts. Without batting an eyelash he said that he was a former mechanic of Air Manila, a defunct airline that used to operate during the early 1960s. With his height and bulk, he must really have looked like a plane mechanic because the interviewer did not probe further. He just said that he needed retraining for more modern planes. To which Brod Nards readily agreed.
He turned out to be a very efficient worker. His co-workers would often ask him to slow down a bit so that they would not look like laggards. Before he retired, he was assigned the more sensitive job of assembling the pilot’s complicated cockpit which was filled with the most modern electronics from the latest in science.
After retirement, we continued our conversations in Makati where he was renovating his retirement home. This time we talked more about enjoying the good life that we have always wanted. We had plans of going to Real, Quezon to buy a beachfront property overlooking the Pacific Ocean for our week-end jaunts. It did not come to pass. God had other plans for him.
Like all of us, Brod Nards would have wanted to live longer. He was just starting to have all the time to pursue his bucket list. He would have wanted to spend his retirement years closely with Angie in Makati. I knew he wanted to see his grand daughter bloom into a a curious teenager that he would mentor on the ways of the world. At least, he was happy to see the youngest of his children complete his studies in medicine.
Whenever death falls upon a brother Betan, we always try to understand the mysteries of life and death. We have always feared the unknown even if we came from the same deep abysmal silence. For billions of years we were nothing; we were nowhere before we came to life on this Earth. After we cross the river we go back to the same endless eternity. As God said to Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”
So tonight we are asked again to walk through this valley of darkness, follow the light that is glowing from the crest of the hill and from the mountaintop we hope to unravel this mystery by rising toward the tides of God’s glorious promise of eternal life.
Goodbye Brod Nards! As we grieve with Angie and her children, we reassure them that they will always be part of our lives like our own families.
Brod Nards
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E-MAIL MESSAGES
It pains me to announce that Brod
Nards Taggueg died at the Makati Medical Center early this morning at 3am
after complications caused by a chest pain. Brod Nards recently retired
from Boeing in Seattle. The family is currently making arrangements for
the release of the body from the hospital. Announcements on the wake will
be made later. ***********************
We share our grief with the family
of brod Nards...we offer our prayers for our departed brother. ***********************
My Dear Brods,
***********************
It saddens me a lot, especially in
times like this, when a brother dies. And the first thing that comes into
my mind is how will the family cope up with the loss of their loved one,
not only emotionallly and physically, but also financially. And my next
question is how can I help to ease their grief and sorrow, and lighten the
burden on their shoulders. ***********************
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