[Ed’s Note: Dr. Rey Pagtakhan’s tribute to his younger brother. Dr. Rey is a regular contributor to CFNet.]
Allow me to share this piece and to share with you the prayer-poem, “At Journey’s End,” penned a decade ago in 2016 by my younger brother, Francisco Daluz Pagtakhan, who died on the 26th of last month and was laid to rest a couple of days ago on the 13th – exactly 17 years ago to the day when and where his wife Anicia Laiz was laid to rest. Poignant family memories of sorrow and joy.
In different but in both times, our families were seized with sorrow as we mourned their loss from our midst on planet Earth and, at the same, were filled with joy in the assurance they have joined Our Father in Heaven where we all long to be someday, where there is neither melancholy nor pain, only sempiternal peace.
Following the Mass of Christian Burial celebrated by Reverend Father Vincent Lusty at the St. Emile Parish Church in Winnipeg – where Franci’s only granddaughter Bethany Kolisniak shared her beautiful Words of Remembrance – the hearse travelled to the Glen Lawn Funeral Home & Cemetery.
At the end of Father Lusty’s blessings and prayers and before the casket was lowered down, I hastened instinctively to reach for the chest pocket of my winter coat, retrieved my copy of the Programme, and asked Father Lusty’s permission for me to read aloud my younger brother’s short prayer-verse written 10 years before his death. A reflection, indeed, of his abiding Catholic faith:
At Journey’s End
“He died for me. I live for Him.”
Bless me, Jesus, and make me clean.
I come and kneel before your cross to pledge my love, O Lord of hosts.
When roads are rough and trails uphill, embrace me tight, my Saviour dear.
Thou leave me not, dwell in my heart,
Show me the Way, the Truth, the Life.
At journey’s end, I pray you keep
My heart and soul, to thee I willed.
This prayer-poem was discovered posthumously by the youngest of his three daughters, Rose, and her daughter, Bethany. Fondly called Franci in our family, he was Francis to the greater community. May you rest in peace. We all love you, Franci.
Editor's note: Dr. Rey D. Pagtakhan, P.C., O.M., LL.D., Sc.D., M.D. M.Sc. is a retired lung specialist, professor of child health, and former MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, and cabinet minister. He graduated from the University of the Philippines, did postgraduate training and studies at the Children’s Hospitals of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, and spent a sabbatical year as Visiting Professor at the University of Arizona Medical Center. He is the author of articles and chapters in medical journals and textbooks and columnist for community newsmagazines. Widely lectured in Canada and abroad, he spoke in June 2003 on “The Global Threat of New Infectious Diseases” at the G-8 Science Ministers/Advisors Carnegie Group Meeting in Berlin. He volunteers on the Advisory Council of Immigration Partnership Winnipeg and the Board of St. Paul’s College Foundation at the University of Manitoba.
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