The phone call

On September 1st, 2009 4:40 am I got a phone call from my brother in Paraguay. I was half asleep and half dreaming when I answered the phone. My brother was telling me something about my 2nd uncle going swimming, something about my dad being missing. Within a minute I had fully awaken into panic mode and realized what had happen.

My dad had went back to Taiwan to visit, and on his third day in Taiwan he, my 2nd uncle, and uncle's wife decided to have lunch at this place with really good roast duck. At about 12:30pm, on their drive back home they passed by the beach, my uncle and dad decided spontaneously to go for a walk on the shore while my auntie waited nearby. That was the last time she saw them alive.

She waited for almost two hours and realized something may be wrong. They couldn't have gone for such a long walk. She panicked and went for the police. After almost an hour at the police station filing a missing person's report, my auntie pleaded with the police to go look for her husband and my dad. The police finally did. Within an hour, authorities found my uncle's lifeless body lodged in the rocks by the shore about 20 meters from where they started their walk. It was about 4:30pm. They continued their search for my dad but couldn't find him. They had to hold off the search till the next morning. At about 7:40pm Taiwan time, 4:40am Los Angeles time was when I heard the terrible news. At this point we were still holding on to that tiny ray of hope that my dad was still alive.

The same afternoon my aunt and I boarded a flight back to Taiwan, still very much hoping that my dad would be found, alive. We landed Sept 2nd at about 10pm in Taipei. About 11pm on our way to my parent's house, the shuttle driver received a phone call from my brother in Paraguay. My aunt immediately got hold of the phone and burst out in tears soon after. I knew what had happened.

They found my dad. They found his body that morning. By that time mostly all our family and relatives know what had happened. Those who can went to the spot to help with the search. At about 8am, September 2nd, they pulled my dad's lifeless body out of the water. He and his brother died together. What really happened out there, no one knows, only speculations and guesses. My dad, the eldest of 6 siblings, celebrated his 60th birthday just 10 days earlier. My uncle, the second eldest, was 58. They both died less than a year after their mother, my grandma, passed away. I believe the three of them are somewhere drinking whiskey together again.


http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2009/new/sep/2/today-so12.htm (news article)