Thank You For Everything! 

The week-long holiday gave us the time to visit the resting places of our loved ones who have departed. 

Since they were young, I have always brought my children to that annual journey to visit the tombs of my ancestors for them to realize how their forebears worked so hard to make us what we are today. 

On Nov. 1, I and my wife brought our children to the tombs of my grandparents, Jose Cordero Pinol and Azucena Malasador Magbanua, and my father and other relatives. 

I believe that this annual ritual connects them to the people who worked so hard to lift this family out of poverty. 

In this journey I tell them how poor my grandfather was, that he plowed the fields that were not his but that he was able to send my father to school. 

I relate to them the story of how my father, poor as his family was, attended his graduation ceremony in the elementary grades without shoes because his parents could not afford to buy a pair for him. 

These stories, I believe, make them understand and appreciate hardship and sacrifice. 

I believe these stories will make them stronger and more resolute in facing the challenges in life.

Source: Manny Piñol