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Eulogy for Alberto J. Nubla Saturday, June 25, 2005 Alberto, known as Albert, Bert, Boy, or Pop was born on January 5th, 1946 in Pasay City, Philippines to Edelisa and Jose Nubla. He was the fifth of nine children. Albert attended Far Eastern University where he received bachelor’s degree in accounting. He also pursued and attained a law degree from the same university. Except for a stint at the U.S. Post Office, he was a career auditor and accountant. In the Spring of 1985, Albert immigrated to the United States with his wife and four small children. It was a struggle for the first few years as Albert & Didi essentially began their careers all over in the hopes of providing their family with a good life. But, with the help of both family and friends, they persevered in their goals and succeeded. Twenty years later, Albert watched all four of his children graduate from college and walked two of his daughters down the aisle as they began their lives as married women. Ever since he was a child, Albert loved basketball and played it constantly. In his later years, he channeled that passion by becoming an avid fan of the NBA and supporting his son in his basketball tournaments. He also loved to sing and any of you who have been to our house parties or family celebrations can attest to his penchant for singing karaoke late into the night. For the past decade, Albert began to transform our once uninspiring garden into one that was filled with roses and a collection of fruit trees, which he lovingly cultivated. The abundance of flowers, fruits and vegetables every summer and fall is a testament to the love and care he put forth into his gardening. Last year, he was diagnosed with primary liver cancer and secondary lung cancer. Seven months of chemotherapy and the support of everyone around him gave him a reprieve from the onslaught. He began this year physically fit and he eagerly resumed work at LA City and in his garden at home. The respite from illness ended about a month ago and he decided to resume chemotherapy. Unfortunately, he caught pneumonia as he was recovering his strength from the first round and he died in the hospital last Sunday, on Father’s Day at the age of 59. He is survived by his wife, Didi, with whom he shared the joys and the pains, the laughter and the tears that naturally come with 31 years of marriage. He is also survived by his daughters, Abi, Gladys and Sigrid, Son, Gene, Sisters, Pining, Zon and Elvie, and Brothers, Andy and Manuel. He will be missed by family, friends and co-workers, all of whose lives he has positively touched, whether in large or small ways. Albert cherished the relationships that he created and maintained with everyone he encountered, from childhood to his later years, from high school to college, in his immediate and distant family and from his neighborhood to the community at large. I believe that he is now at peace, watching over us. Though we can’t see him, he will be there to witness the marriages of his youngest children and the birth and growth of his future grandchildren. Death is always hardest on the living but let us not mourn but celebrate his life. John Donne expresses this sentiment so eloquently [in his poem “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning”]: As virtuous men pass mildly away, So let us melt, and make no noise,
5 [And this part especially for MOM] Our two souls therefore, which are one, If they be two, they are two so
25 And though it in the centre sit, Such wilt thou be to me, who must, |