IN MEMORY OF A DEAR FRIEND AND NEIGHBOR

by: Norberto Betita

LEO CORTES with his daughter

Whenever I learned of a death of a friend or relative, I am always reminded of the story of the old Grecian tragedy around the fall of Athens, where an Athenian Philosopher was caught by a Roman Soldier. The Roman told the Athenian that he is going to put him to death, but the Athenian was not bothered. So the Roman asked, “May be you do not know what it means to die?” To which the Athenian philosopher replied, “Thou dost not know what it means to die for thou dost not know what it means to live. To die is to begin to live. It is to end all stale and weary works to begin a nobler and a better. It is to live deceitful knaves for the society of Gods and goodness.” 

When I read the Facebook message of his daughter, I have my emotions high that I bellowed his name and wept as to astound my children. I had to be comforted by my daughter and daughter-in-law. I do not easily cry in events like this for I understand best that “death is only a passing episode in an eternal journey.” Death is an event in the life of everyone that is sure to happen. I know well that we all need to die in order to live again. As in the words of the legendary Athenian philosopher Socrates, written between 470 BC and 399 BC: “Death may be the greatest of all Human blessings. The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.”

Perhaps my sorrow driven emotions for the passing of my dear friend LEO CORTES came as a result of the wonderful ties that we as friends and next door neighbors shared together for over 20 years. I have wonderful memories of him that will forever remain in my heart. During those almost 21 years of our being neighbors never once did we have animosity between each other and even our families. Our children had grown together as good friends. During our early days as neighbors, one December night their house was threatened by a dangerous landslide. In the wee hours of night under heavy rains and before the rushing mud and water, we together worked to protect their back door and wall from being broken. The following day we found that there was a very large boulder which should have crushed us together to death should it not had landed flat on the concrete road.

With wife during their younger days

Leo to me was such a good man. I can sit with him for hours and he would make me laugh. His humors easily occurred to him whether it be about corruption in government; about his office position and work; about his boss and fellow workers; about his wife and children; and even his occasional foolishness. Still in his great sufferings he talks to me about his afflictions in humors. He tells of truths in the form of humorous expressions.

Once he told me of the vice grip story when he encountered some kind of enmity against his boss. He brought with him this vice grip tool for his motorcycle inside a small black bag. Arriving at the office he slightly banged the black bag on his table enough for his officemates to hear a metallic sound. His colleagues thought that what’s inside was a 45 caliber pistol. His officemates adamantly came close to him and pacified him until he slowly opened the small box and displayed the vice grip tool. Soon I learned he requested to be reassigned in another department to avoid further contentions. .

He is a man of restraint and sobriety. When his failings and frailties demand the nagging of a weary wife, he would rather keep quite or ran from the fury of an angered partner than contend. At times I would hear him talking as if he was in confrontation with his wife, then in humor he would tell me that it was his way of showing his patriarchal authority. On many occasions I observed him talking to his children just like a friend to friend. He laid no restriction that would bar any of his family members to approach him. He is such a good father and husband. And, throughout those long years I have been a witness of his unwavering love for his wife and family. I do have high respect of his paternal diligence and dependability. His brotherly virtue and goodness was affectionately expressed as he volunteered together with the support of his wife and children to foster his ailing brother for years.  As a son most sympathetic and compassionate of the welfare of his beloved mother who is sickly and aged, welcomed her into his home, notwithstanding his own indisposed condition with willing consent from his beloved and supportive wife and family.

The Cortes family

Like all of us, he had his own weaknesses and imperfections, but he dealt with it competently without necessarily compromising his family’s welfare. He is the kind of a man who could handle problems and difficulties with courage, perseverance and confidence.

A few months before his passing, while in agony of his intense physical affliction, he expressed to me why it happened to him. I explained that there is a purpose in everything that we suffer. All of us will pass the Refiner’s fire. The magnitude of our trials may be different one from the other, but all will have to pass the tests of mortality. This is part of the purpose of life. I advised him to spiritually prepare.

While he passed beyond the veil peacefully as expressed by his wife Josefina, I am reminded of the Lord’s promise: “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:18). “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).Perhaps as the hour of his death approached, Leo must have thought as the apostle Paul who declared: “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day….” (2 Timothy 4:6-8). And, so he rested in peace.

With granddaughter

We express our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family of the late Leo Cortes. To his wife Josefina; his children Karina, Pocholo, Paul, and Partick may you be consoled and comforted with the assurance that the spirit of the righteous “are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow” (Alma 40:12). These heartbreaking and awful memories of the painful sacrifice and eventual passing of your dearly beloved husband and father will long remain a part of the unwritten pages in the library of your hearts, but slowly the sadness and gloom will one day extinguish and be replaced with joy and gladness as you come to know the promise that “God shall wipe away all tears from [his] eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son” (Revelations 21:4, 7).

“All that we can know about those loved and lost, is that they would wish us to remember them with a more intensified realization of their reality...The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude” (Thornton Wilder).

The Psalmist in expression of gratitude declared:

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadethme beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths ofrighteousness for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow ofdeath, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” (Psalm 23).

Certainly I will miss and will have a lasting memory of Leo as a dear friend and a respectable neighbor.