Pasko na kaibigan ko.

Is it safe for me to assume that every Filipino is aware that today is the first day of the Christmas season in the Philippines? While I was writing this article, the Christmas song, “It’s Christmas all of the World”, was playing in my computer. Do you guys remember that song? It was made popular by Sheena Easton back in the mid-1980’s. Most of us just stepped out of college when that song became one of the songs in the movie “Santa Claus the Movie” back in 1985.

One morning a few years back, I came to work and greeted my good friend, Jeff Grisham, merry Christmas. After checking his calendar, Jeff gave me a puzzled look and said, “Isn’t it too early for Christmas?”. I told Jeff that Christmas season in the Philippines starts when the names of the months ends with “ber”-SeptemBER, OctoBER, etc. Jeff was skeptical at first thinking that I just made it up until another Filipino confirmed to him that Christmas in the Philippine islands starts on September 1st.

Jeff and I always enjoyed discussing historical facts about the American civil war and world war 2. Jeff used to be a crew chief in a C-141 starlifter aircraft that transported supplies for the U.S. airforce from Norway to Germany during the 1960’s. He told me about his travels around Europe.

When I tranferred to another department, Jeff and I continued to e-mail each other, specially on September 1st. Then one day, I received an email from one of Jeff’s friends informing me that Jeff died. Last September 1, 2008, I went to the military cementary where Jeff was buried. I placed a picture of Jeff and I on top of his tomb and I told Jeff, “Merry Christmas, Mr. Jeff….I miss you, my old friend”