My dad....

has always been my No.1 supporter. As I thought about my first post on this blog, the first person that came to mind was my dad. He has never questioned my knowledge and abilities, believing I can do anything if I put my mind to it. I take after him in so many aspects. The most obvious is our looks. For as long as I can remember family and family friends would say "hey Zacarias" that being my dad's name. We both are pretty easy going but if pushed enough have a hot temper. We are pretty passive but if we feel passionately about something we can be assertive fighters. We both love to laugh. His smile is pure sunshine. In our family we say "the Clementir's eyes even smile." He taught my siblings and I how to swim. He loves to swim and always dreamed to be an Olympic swimmer in the Philippines. All my siblings joined the swim team in high school. I guess I was a lousy student because Terry (my husband) believes my swimming looks more like a person on the verge of drowning. He has been our rock and did everything in his power to never say "no" to anything we wanted or more importantly needed.
Growing up he lost his mother at the age of 2. He would tell us about having to live with various families and worked for them just to have a roof over his head and food to eat. He wanted more for us and survived the culture shock of moving to United States so that we had more opportunities and a better education.
He has always wanted the best for his family and has sacrificed the ultimate price, his health and well being to help support us. My father has Mesothelioma. He contracted this rare cancer from working on building and restoring military destroyer ships. Even with his declining health, the only thing my father is concerned about is the well being of his family. It saddens me that my daughters will never truly know how wonderful their Lolo "grandfather in Filipino" is and how much he adored them. And as I write this getting teary eyed, I can't help but think scratch that know that I have been truly blessed to have the most wonderful man as my father. If I can be half the man he is with his work ethic, strength, determination, loyalty, and love I would make for a near perfect individual who would have lived a full life in this large world. My lot in life is for him to be proud of me. By my standards I have a lot of work to do, but by his I know he believes I have done it all. Here's to all the daughter's who desperately love their fathers.




Kylie and my dad "Lolo" (May 2012)