Reading the last page on Jonathan "Doy" Amihan.

When we fall far away from the people that we grew up with, does the grief of our departure reaches out to every person that we know? I don’t know which travels faster and further: The good news, the bad news or the sad news.

The sad news about the death of Jonathan “Doy” Amihan never reached me until a few evenings ago. I pulled and studied the graduation picture of Doy because I wanted to match the name with a face to help me remember. I labored to piece together a good memory about Amihan but the bits and pieces of memories in my mind are like dying glows of light. Whatever memories that I still have about Amihan are so brief that it does not tell a story. With the help of a few of our batch mates, I was able to paint a simple memoir about Amihan.

The Amihan family used to reside in Filoville in Naga City. During high school, Doy is known by his class mates and friends as being a book worm. He loves reading pocket books that are 3 to 4 inches thick. Whenever Doy is bored during class, especially if the teacher is Mr. Ordas, Mr. Lopez or Mr. Rubio, Doy would angle his body in a certain way to hide what he was doing from the line of sight of the teacher. He would then pull his pocket book and be immersed in the story of his book.

One of Doy’s relative is our own batch mate, Cesar Concon. It is quite entertaining to watch Amihan and Concon share stories between themselves because their energy level hits the ceiling everytime they do it. Their story telling technique is quite phenomenal because of their use of unique facial expressions accompanied by sounds effects that resembles the real thing. Their arms would fly all over the place while they describe the events inside their story. Just imagine these two guys tell the story about an action-filled war or karate movie. These guys ought to be in Hollywood.

Amihan along with Concon joined the DeMolay international which is a civic group whose origins dates back to 1919 in Kansas City, Missouri. It is an organization that mostly recruited young men ages 12 to 21.

During our batch’s year book photo session, the group consisting of Avenido, Caning, Bachiller, Abrigo, Canlas, Amoranto, Alarkon and Amihan went inside the room before my group. I watched closely Amihan’s group go through their “Kodak moment”. I remember Amoranto being a bit puzzled as to where he would put his hands since Canlas and Alarkon rested their arms on Amoranto’s legs.

Doy Amihan eventually moved to Palawan. I don’t know exactly when he was diagnosed with cancer. He passed away on February 8, 2012. They believe Amihan has one child.

Doy, though you are gone, your stories will never be forgotten...

I would like to extend my gratitude to a few members of the LG-17 who set aside a brief moment of their time to send me their fond memories about Doy. Without these batch mates, I don’t think I will be able to write much about our departed batch mate.

These LG-17 members proudly claims that their class is the official honors section of our batch. One of the respected LG-17 member is known to possess the same magical talent as the world renowned magician and escape artist, “Harry Houdini”. The reason why he is called “Houdini” is because he has the amazing ability to disappear in thin air whenever his birthday comes around. I prefer not to reveal his name in fear that this Houdini might cast a spell on me. The only thing I can tell you about him is he dwells in a huge castle ruling over many of his subjects. Behind his throne of power is a picture of a large iconic boxer.