Tatang left his young family of Paing Bantay Iloco Sur on July 13, 1966 to come to Hawaii, through the sponsorship of our beloved uncle Zacarias Paet. I heard from my cousin Arsie that the reunion of the two brothers was a joyous, bittersweet one. They hugged and cried with joy when they first saw each other. My sister was just 1 year old when he left for Maui, so when we were reunited on April 21,1969, my sister didn't even know our dad and did not go near him.

Tatang worked for Maui Land & Pineapple Company soon after he arrived on Maui. He was employed with the company as a pineapple picker for a few years, then, worked for HC&S as a cane cutter till he was diagnosed with cancer in 1991. He actually worked till he no longer could stand the pain in his left leg.

He endured the pain and took painkillers while he continued to work. He realized that the painkillers were not helping at all and asked me to take him to the doctor where I demanded that they do tests and X-rays on him to find out what was causing his pain. They finally took X-rays that showed abnormal images and immediately made arrangement to send him to Kaiser Moanaloa on Oahu where they did an MRI that showed part of his thigh bone has worn out and needed surgery to replace it with a metal one.

He was eventually diagnosed with Sarcoma of the left leg, weeks later when he went back to Moanaloa by himself for a follow-up appointment. That day was one of the saddest days of my life when his doctor called to inform me of his diagnosis. When we picked him up at the airport upon returning from Oahu that evening, I remember him saying that "he was dying and will never get to see his grandchildren graduate from High school."

He was told that he only had six months to live, but actually lived for 2 years after his diagnosis. He endured months of chemotherapy that made him sick and caused him to lose his appetite. Because of his will to battle his illness, he agreed to radiation therapy on Oahu when he finished his round of chemotherapy.

We were scheduled to leave for Oahu the day after uncle Carias came to visit him on the night of November 7, 1992, only to cancel it due to the sudden death of uncle Carias that following morning. It was then that he lost his will to fight his illness and told me to cancel radiation therapy. He said that he was supposed to have died before uncle, being that he was the one with cancer.

Tatang was never one to complain even up to his illness. I knew he was in pain but never heard him complain. However, when his pain became unbearable, I heard him pray to GOD one day that he was ready to go and to take him.

Tatang was very strict and very protective of my sister and me. I remember my older brother Leo telling me the story about how nervous tatang was when I went out on my first date (not with my husband, lol). Leo told me that tatang drank a 6-pack beer and probably smoked a whole pack of cigarettes, poor guy!

A funny story is when I was dating my husband, tatang asked him, "How come one good looking guy like you like be with my daughter?" Rodney was kind of shocked with the question and just answered, "Because she is a nice girl.”