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How to experience miracles? This is my real story part one: MIRACULOUS GRACE TO MY DAD.
Remember the good and not the bad and it will help you get through”
Dad’s words before he got sick.
Memories From Childhood
One of the best memories I have with my dad was when he carried me on his shoulders, walking from home to my first day of school. My father is a good man. He loves his family, work and friends. I remember when I was just a small kid that we always had people coming and staying with us, who were looking for work in the city. Yes, we once lived in the city of Cebu, Philippines. In fact, I was born in the city. Dad had a nice job as a quality control supervisor for one of the rattan companies in the Philippines. Mom was also working as a factory worker for a candy company. We were doing well financially, had a house, and everything was great. But all of that was turned upside down in a day, and our lives would never be the same.
Dad was a hard working man. He would get up so early in the mornings and he worked until late. Most of the time, he did not even eat breakfast and who knows just how much he ate at work since he was doing a lot of work. Every Sunday we would all go to a Roman Catholic Church in the morning and in the afternoon dad would usually go fishing and we ate a lot of fish. I can still remember when we would have a large pan almost full of seafood every time dad would go fishing. Life was really good, we had plenty to eat. In fact, I am not denying the fact that I was so spoiled. All of it changed though when dad became very ill.
Not realizing until later on, but dad had emotional issues from the past. I guess now I understand better why he liked it so much being in the ocean. It seems to me now that was his escape from all the things that were bothering him. But did he really escape? Dad is the kind of man who is quiet when we want to talk about him and his life growing up. He always diverted the conversation toward other things and even went on to joke a lot and laughed and showed us that he was happy, with the joyful face he had. But deep inside, he was actually dealing with some issues from the past.
Memories Of Unexplained Discipline
Upon learning later on, dad had a problematic childhood. He was dealing with verbal abuse that kept haunting him in his mind. All he wanted was to be a kid who would be able to play and enjoy his childhood growing up. His appetite to play as a boy resulted with him being put out of school when he was just in fifth grade. He was put to work and never sent back to school again. He is smart but his lack of education put a lot of pressure on him once he was put in a higher position at work.
Even though he had not finished his education, his intellect to be able to figure things out and working hard made a strong impression with the owner of the company and put him in charge in many departments. He later told me that when the company would have meetings with other company partners from other countries, everyone spoke English. But he would have an interpreter for himself, because he could not understand the conversation. Of course it was also embarrassing for him. But he tried to not let it bother him and did his best.
After he was taken out of school as a kid, he had to work. Not much playing for him, but work. As a young kid, he tended to animals much bigger than he was, like water buffalo and cows. There were times when he would be riding on the back of the water buffalo and fall asleep. And the animal ended up eating the plants which belonged to the neighbors. My grandfather would be looking for my dad and would find out that he had fallen asleep and the plants were being damaged. Dad would be awakened while still on top of the water buffalo with a whipping stick on his back.
Some other times he would fall asleep under a coconut tree while tending other animals and the same thing happened to him, another whipping! This kind of treatment and calling him words that a parent should never call their children, in my opinion, damaged him. All of those things that my dad had to deal with, he continued to keep in his heart growing up. Yes my dad made a lot of mistakes, and he was being punished for it. It was a form of discipline. But he was a kid and had the appetite to play, eat and sleep.
Result Of Unexplained Discipline
Parents should discipline their children. But discipline without having the kid understand first why they need to be punished can turn into an emotional disturbance, and that’s what happened to my dad. He could not understand why he was being punished tremendously for falling asleep while doing things. He could not help it when he would fall asleep. Nothing much was being said, just straight whippings and calling him dumb, crazy, lazy, etc…, you get the point. When you were a kid and treated like that, it would be hard to just let it pass and not feel unloved, and not have an emotional effect on you.
Dad was carrying all of that pain inside until he was grown and married, and had his own family. When I was born and dad would discipline me, he always made sure that I knew first what my mistake was and what I did wrong, and he would talk to me about it. He usually would give me a warning and when I did it again he would discipline me. It made all the difference in my upbringing towards discipline. Did my dad discipline me harshly? Yes, sometimes it felt like it was harsh, but I understood why, and I accepted it and did better.
When I was in second grade, just before the end of school year, dad got very sick. On Christmas Eve, dad was really acting and talking strangely. He could not sit still, and was pacing back and forth in the house. He asked the whole family to hurry and eat so that night we would all die! Mom was alarmed! She had noticed that dad had been acting strange a few days before. But that evening, she right away realized that dad had gone mad. She picked up all the sharp objects in the house and hid them. Then she instructed my brother and me to sneak out of the house and hide at a nearby gated house in the neighborhood. My brother and I managed to get out of the house without dad noticing.
Mom tried to comfort dad so he would not get violent, but was unsuccessful. Dad became worse and mom had no choice but to run out of the house and looked for help from the neighbors and sent word to the police. She was hoping that the police would come and arrest dad before he would hurt anyone. Unfortunately, the police never did arrive until it was too late. As soon as mom managed to get away, dad had locked himself in the house. He gathered all the clothes in the house, poured gasoline on, and lit it up. The fire caused a lot of smoke inside and outside the house. Thank God there was a power outage that evening and the fire did not spread any further outside the house and the fire eventually died.
Dad was suicidal, he wanted to die. But during this time a courageous strong man with my great aunt came who lived a few houses away from us and tried to open the door. He wanted to help dad out from all that smoke inside the house. They kept knocking on the door but dad never opened. So the guy who was with my great aunt kicked the door and managed to make a small hole where the lock was inside. As soon as he tried to reach inside to unlock the door, dad stabbed his arm with a screwdriver and a metal scissors that mom had missed hiding. The man got severely injured and left with my great aunt.
My father had a nervous breakdown. He suffered post traumatic syndrome from an incident working in the coal mine sometime in the past where he just barely made it out alive. When the coal mine caved in, some of his friends died inside. He could have died too, but he escaped. But many times over he could not help but wish that he had just died too. He never recovered from the grief he suffered from losing his friends. He could not understand why God had allowed his friends to die and let him escape. There were more incidents that happened that added to all those problems. His mind just could not handle all of that stress anymore. He lost control and finally had a breakdown.
Dad got violent and was in a defensive mood and was losing control over his actions. He was thinking that people were coming after him to hurt and kill him. He had the screwdriver and the metal scissors. That was his weapon he thought to protect himself from the intruders. After my great aunt and the guy left, dad ran outside the house to get away. But when he got outside the house he saw a little boy my same age at the time, who was my friend actually standing out in the yard and was watching what was going on.
Unfortunately all his adult members of the family hid and had left him outside. Dad was running and when he saw my friend he stabbed him in the stomach. My friend was knocked to the ground and dad kept running until he heard a voice from my great uncle who was drunk challenging him to come after him. My dad of course was not thinking right anymore and went straight to my great uncle lying on the bench and stabbed him several times. By this time more neighbors were made aware of the situation. But still no police in sight!
After dad stabbed my great uncle, he started running again. And as he was running one of our relatives got a hold of a piece of wood and hit my dad with it on the head. He did not realize, though, that the wood he was holding had a piece of long nail in it. He just found it on the trail and picked it up to protect himself from dad. It was dark and he was walking and headed toward dad. Instead of running away, he kept walking toward dad and then hit dad with the wood and the nail got stuck in dad’s head and knocked him down to the ground.
The relative thought dad was dead, so he took the screwdriver and the scissors away from dad’s hands. And a few minutes later the police finally came. Dad was pooling in his own blood, and so were the others. It was a horrific situation. The police then tied my dad up and threw his body on the back of a tricycle. It is a public transportation in the Philippines with three wheels with a vehicle attached to the motorcycle. They tied my dad’s hands and legs like an animal. His body was lifeless, and they really thought he was dead. They took him to the hospital and my mother went to the hospital with dad. And as soon as they arrived there and the doctor checked dad out, he was immediately pronounced dead.
God Had A Plan
Mom was a mess, and she was so overwhelmed with all that just happened. There were so many things going on in my mother’s mind. She was totally in a bad situation. She not only had to think of dad, but also her children and those people that dad had hurt. She was so fearful and totally lost in the situation. While waiting at the hospital to see what to do next, all of a sudden dad was gasping for air. Mom hurried and called the doctor for help. A miracle had just happened! Dad woke up and was asking for water! But they would not give him any water, because of his injury. Dad was so thirsty that he drank his own blood from the floor. I’m sure it was a gross scene.
God was not finished with my dad. God loves him despite all the crimes he has committed. It was out of his control. But dad had to pay for those crimes. He was treated first and was put in the insane asylum. He had to stay there for several months under the supervision of doctors. His brain was severely damaged. The doctors said he was lucky to be alive, but we know it was a miracle from God. When dad’s wounds got almost healed he was then transferred to jail, exclusively for the insane people. During this time my mom was going back and forth to take care of dad’s legal charges.
The victims of that awful incident were taken to the hospital and were treated for their wounds. The guy who got injured first did not press charges, and neither was my great uncle. But the family of the boy did. We paid for his medical treatment and other expenses. The case was brought to court and mom had to take dad back and forth several times during the court proceedings. Dad was eventually found not guilty on the basis of insanity, and the case was closed.
Life went on, but dad has never been the same. The dad I once knew who was sweet and calm had turned into a terror in his own mind and to us, his family. We were so happy that he made it through and was still alive, but soon we were tormented by his terror. He got violent when he was not taking his medication. Medicine is expensive so there were times when we could not afford to buy it and suffered terror at home. His behavior heavily affected not only us, his family, but all those who were around him.
Look out for the Part Two of the story. It is quite long to share at once that’s why I’m sharing it part at a time. This is a story not just a second chance of life but many chances just so God’s mighty work could manifest through my father’s humble life. Blessings to all ❤️🙏.
