This speech was delivered on July 31, 2014 by Dondi Paulo De Joya for his basic speech no. 5
Who among you
here has long patience? Do you remember the time your patience was tested? The
time your patience had to grow longer? Good evening fellow Toastmasters. Tonight,
you’ll be hearing a story of how this teenage boy back then grew his… patience.
It was March 2005 when my father suffered a stroke. I just finished my Arnis
training that Thursday when our driver told me what happened. I was quiet the
whole time when we were going to Medical City that afternoon. It was a very silent
summer for us that year. Things started picking up pace, though, on the day
that dad went back home in May. We had a checklist from our doctor on how to
take care of stroke patients. Now Dad couldn't eat, couldn't bathe, and couldn't walk by himself. So guess what? It was Nursing OJT for the whole
family.
Dad had a rubber
tube through his nose straight to his stomach and we had to feed him banana
base through that tube every four hours every day for three months. Banana base
had quite a complex recipe like mashed bananas with water and medicine. We didn't get right the first few times, by the way, and dad hated the tube and would pull it out whenever he got the chance. It was around 5,000.00 pesos per
tube insertion. So every time it’s P5,000.00 - thick banana base; replace,P5,000,
every time he pulled it, P5,000 and my
mom would say “Mon! Bakit mo hinila?!” I lost count of how many times we
replaced the tube before he relearned chewing and swallowing. We would wake up
in the middle of the night, groggy in pouring the smoothie into the tube.
Sometimes we’d use an air pump to half the feeding time. While we were at it, we
would change his adult diaper with a fresh one. For the mothers in the room who have
changed your babies’ diapers, I salute you. There were memorable nights that we
would play opera music (on the doctor’s orders to speed up brain recovery) and
as I removed my dad’s loaded diaper *opera voice* The picture’s forever in
here. *point at head* Black. He must be
dehydrated. He needs more water in his food. So, I’d carry on like nothing
happened.
The worse part though,
was his temper. Imagine a crying adult baby. Imagine a toddler adult throwing
tantrums. Kind of annoying but cute, right? NO. Imagine a full-grown man
swearing left and right, and didn't want to listen.
I’ll leave that one to your imagination to uphold the professional
atmosphere, but God help us, God help our patience! It was those feeding
shifts, those diaper nights, those hellish outbursts that grew my patience.
Those times were really trying times where we cursed and we cried. Those times
sure are good memories right now because, back then, in some of the nights we
were awake, we would talk about the man my mom fell in love with, the hero I
strove to become and surpass, the father of the family we will always love, no
matter what.
So here we all
are nine years older, nine times stronger and ninety-nine times more patient. We
all have our own shares of tests and teachers of our patience. In my case, it
was these first few months of nurse duty that grew my… patience. These trying
times made it clearer to me why patience is so important in my family, in
everyone’s circle of loved ones. If there's one reason why patience is important
and why we should have longer stuff of it, it's because patience is the
yardstick of our capacity to love. It was my yardstick of my capacity to love,
and my patience now stretches over God knows how far. So, fellow Toastmasters, the
next time someone tests you, someone you love needs help, be patient. Have more
and more patience and, only then, you can give more and more love.
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