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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Uncle Angel

I was so anxious all day yesterday about Sweetie because he hurt his back. Matters of the spine need to be taken seriously so I quickly re-booked my flight and dropped everything to get home as soon as I can. What made matters worse though the airline double-charged me for re-booking my flight. This was brought to my attention by the airline crew at Changi Airport when I called up to check if it was okay just to pay when I checked-in. They said that it was unfair, so they took care of calling up the Manila office to re-do the fare computation.

I had to wait a long time to get the fare re-computed. I just wanted to get home as soon as I can. I sat near the counter and was watching a little boy who was showing the world what terrible two meant. An uncle, one of the many airport crew, sat beside me and watched the child too. The parents was just letting him run around by himself and the uncle looked like he was ready to run and rescue the child in case he hurt himself.

To distract myself I started chatting with the uncle and we both agreed that the child was indeed very active (malikot!). The uncle said that Europeans and Asians bring up their children very differently. I told him that in the Philippines parents always make sure that their kids are within safe distance. He said in Europe parents usually just leave the kids running around. He also shared that Europeans don't believe in "whacking" the kids, but was glad that in Asia parents are generally disciplinarians.

We had a very good discussion. After parenting we started talking about health because I told him I was going home for a family emergency. I didn't notice the time, but soon enough the ground crew called me so I could check-in. It was just a few minutes before boarding time so I hurriedly left for the counter. As I was leaving the uncle I was chatting with waved to me and told me to have a safe flight.

As I was rushing to get to the boarding gate I realized that God sent me an angel to calm me down. The uncle looked a lot like my Dad - same height, white hair, wore glasses, except he was fair skinned. My Dad used to be able to calm me down in an instant and I guess he was watching over me yesterday to make sure I get home safely to my family. 

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