The Final Lap

Tony Mapa died on March 3, 2005. Initial reports said he met a tragic car accident on the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX). His nephew Dondi writes on his blog “My dear uncle and godfather, Antonio Ledesma Mapa, passed away…on his way from the Mapa-Ledesma farm in Tanjay, Negros Oriental to the Ledesma farm in San Carlos, Negros Occidental. The accident happened in the town of Guihulngan… Ninong Tony was 66 years old.”

On November 2007, Joe de Luna was diagnosed with cancer of the lungs. He requested for a priest whom he usually fetches to say mass at the funeral parlor. The priest, Fr. Choy of of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, was due to leave for his new assignment in the United States, came to hear his confession and administer the anointing of the sick on Mang Joe. He eventually died after four months on the afternoon of March 23, 2008 Easter Sunday. He complained to his daughter that he had no sleep for the last four days coinciding with the passion of Our Lord. Mang Joe's body lay at state at the same funeral parlor he was working for. He looked smart wearing his funeral attendant’s gala uniform. His sister gave the eulogy and expressed her family’s appreciation to the owners of the parlor for giving Joe the opportunity to live a decent life. The response was “It is our family who should give thanks to Mang Joe for having given half of his life in service. We were still children and when he worked with my father and this was still a struggling business.”

Both of these gentlemen were professional drivers in different lines, but they have lived life to the fullest.

Photos:
Phil. Motor Sports Festival 2003: by Regie Fernando
Superior Cadillac Statesman from Shields Southeast Sales

Professional Drivers

Let me take a side trip to write about a professional driver I met. His name is Tony, drove for the Toyota Racing Team with Dante Silverio. I hitched with him from Baguio to Manila and he would smoothly overtake five or six cars at the mountain road. Somehow, it felt very safe the way he drove. Tony tells me that he stopped driving professionally because as a family man, he can no longer take the risks he used to during his younger days. But then, the passion for driving is difficult to break and perhaps for the sheer pleasure of it, the father and son team of “rally legend...Tony... and son Francis” join a good sampling of rally figures at The Dodo Ayuyao Memorial Sampaguita Rally.

Mang Joe’s career as a professional driver is different. He drove for a physician and his family. When the doctor migrated to the United States, he was recommended to a businessman who was putting up a funeral parlor, driving for him and his family and eventually the funeral coaches. He got married, raised a family and built a shanty in a private compound at New Manila.

Every now and then, Mang Joe would pass by his Lola’s house. Without being told, he would start doing house chores and clean the garage, chat with his Lola and the maids. If he still has time, he would buy a few bottles of beer at the sari-sari store. One day, he told his Lola he always dreams of coffins and that worried him. Lola amusingly repllied “What do you expect? You are working in a funeraria and see coffins the whole day.”