My nephew chichos

 

The eulogy I delivered November 15, 2021 during the service for my nephew Charlton or Chichos Lucas. I added the link to the songs.

Good evening or good morning .. I am Lourdes or Ondes or Lulu Lucas Herold. 

Chot is my brother and Chichos is my nephew.  I am representing the Lucas clan which includes my sister Josefina or Bebeng or ate, my brother Benjie, our youngest sibling Menchie and my late brother Anton. ‘We and our families convey our condolences and love to Erica, Zander, Molly, Sam, Minnie, Minette and their families.  And especially our beloved brother Chot.

I learned a lot on what Chichos was like all grown up when he attended the Lucas clan zoom meetings last year.  He attended the children’s cooking classes with molly and zander and the 9 day novena for pinky , the late wife of my brother Benjie . 

I saw him blossomed to this caring, sensitive, assertive, cheerleader and motivator.  qualities that he manifested in the videos of these meetings. Esp day 2 of the novena for pinky.  I promised Chot I will keep this eulogy to three minutes so I will spare you of stories related to the videos.  Instead allow me to use three songs which I will relate to the life and death of our beloved Chichos. 

The first song is A Million Dreams from the movie the Greatest Showman.  The poster of Hugh Jackman actually reminds me of Chichos who is a showman himself.  Wasn’t he?

I am pretty sure Chichos spent sleepless nights lying in bed dreaming a million things as the lyrics say.  But chichos was a doer and fulfilled most of them.  But best of all he continued to dream.

The second song is The Dance by Garth brooks.  I thought at first it was a break up song of two people whose relationship had gone awry.  It turned out Garth and his producer decided to present it in the video as a homage to those famous people who died young and at times tragically.  Chichos has now joined their ranks. 

The lyrics of this song beautifully explore the significance of not knowing how our choices will end. Because if we did, we might not take chances and miss the pain and miss importantly the dance.  But our beloved Chichos did not miss the dance. He bravely danced.

We are free to interpret songs.  And that is what I am going to do with the third song, Rainbow Connection by Kermit theFrog   A Peruvian proverb says in death there is a convergence of heaven and earth.  When somebody dies we feel the presence of God more strongly.

As we see a rainbow, my hope is we see that behind it is the other side where chichos is now.  When my mother died I found comfort in the words that my friend wrote in the card she sent me.  "As people of faith we know we shall see our loved ones again".  See you chichos on the other side of the rainbow.  We love you.