A CHANCE MEETING WITH AN AGED INACTIVE BROTHER
Our meeting could not be labeled as accidental for he was, after all, an uncle by affinity of the light of my life, he being married to her aunt. But let me tell you this story as it unfolded from the very beginning.
Before we left for the metropolis last month, we were visited by her cousin at our residence who invited us for dinner as it was the sixty-second birthday of her husband; and in this bucolic and sleepy town where social activities rarely transpire, the missus eagerly accepted her invitation asking me if I will also tag along. I said I will.
Of course, drinking a shot or two would be a welcome respite as the celebrant, being an American citizen and a long-time US resident, would surely have Scotch or brandy served at the table. But that was not what I eagerly looked forward to, it was the thought of meeting his father-in-law that I expected with bathed breath. The latter was, after all, a fraternal brother whose name was already indelibly inscribed in the ancient rolls of the Craft, he being a member of the pioneer class of Quezon City Bodies of the Supreme Council Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite branch of the Fraternity. Records show that in December 1963, he and together with five others that include WB Jesus B. Venzon and Bro. Andres P. Orilla of Quezon City Lodge No. 122. joined the elite rank of the Scottish Rite brethren when Quezon City Bodies initiated its first batch of candidates to the mysteries of the Scottish Rite’s teachings.
As it was a late Sunday afternoon and a time for her Sunday mass, me and the missus decided to go to the place separately, she coming from the church while I would come directly from home. I thereafter reached the residence of the celebrant, offered the usual greetings and subsequently asked for his father-in-law who replied that the old man was at his room resting. Having asked permission from his wife who reluctantly acquiesced as her father was obviously resting disinterestedly on the party that was being held, I entered the room and seeing him serenely lying in bed, mumbled the customary “hello”, held his right hand and executed the SGOTLP. He was totally surprised and immediately opened his eyes wide. I then asked: “What is your mother lodge?” and on this question he mumbled something which I did not understand. I then said that I’ve come across an article saying that he was a member of the pioneer class of the Quezon City Bodies and to which he replied: “Ah, yes, but that was long ago!” Which made his daughter wonder what topic we just discussed in her presence; the two sentences that I uttered, his attendant replies, and even the SGOTLP that I somehow managed to execute that were totally alien to her ears and eyes. Surely, she must have wondered, how come his old man, who was already totally disinterested in the mundane concerns of the outside world, would so suddenly be interested in a topic she knew nothing about??
And so when I visited the Grand Lodge in time for the 2003 ANCOM I requested Ms. Elo Murillo for his Masonic data. It said:
Name: Eduardo D. Palac
Lodge: Bagumbayan No. 4
Birthday: 10/13/12
Initiated: 12/23/33
Passed: 02/24/34
Raised: 04/28/34
Which now puts him on his dotage years as a ninety-year-old who embraced the tenets of the Fraternity during the depression years of the nineteen thirties! And he joined Bagumbayan Lodge No. 4 when he was but a young lad who has just reached the age of twenty one!!
Satisfied that I finally determined that he was a Mason of the good old days, I then scanned other records and saw that in the book “Philippine Lodges” which I had the privilege of co-authoring, an entry on page 158 on the history of Dagohoy Lodge No. 84. said that among the brethren who periodically attended the stated meetings of this lodge at Tagbilaran include the name Eduardo D. Paloc (which we misspelled with an “o”) who would come all the way from his hometown in Calape which is some 42 kilometers away from this provincial lodge.
That he was in his lifetime an active member of the Craft, on this I felt certain judging from his membership in the Quezon City Bodies and his periodic attendance at Dagohoy Lodge No. 84 whenever he visits his hometown in Bohol. But whether he practiced Masonry’s tenets when he migrated sometime in the nineteen seventies to “the land of the brave and the home of the free” I could not guess, for even his daughter who stays with him in Guindulman (his other five children, all girls and now married and now all residing in the States) and his son-in-law do not know that he was a true-blue member of the Craft.
And might as well, for in this rustic community Masons are still regarded with guarded, if not scornful disdain for joining a brotherhood that is anathema to the Church!!
Our meeting could not be labeled as accidental for he was, after all, an uncle by affinity of the light of my life, he being married to her aunt. But let me tell you this story as it unfolded from the very beginning.
Before we left for the metropolis last month, we were visited by her cousin at our residence who invited us for dinner as it was the sixty-second birthday of her husband; and in this bucolic and sleepy town where social activities rarely transpire, the missus eagerly accepted her invitation asking me if I will also tag along. I said I will.
Of course, drinking a shot or two would be a welcome respite as the celebrant, being an American citizen and a long-time US resident, would surely have Scotch or brandy served at the table. But that was not what I eagerly looked forward to, it was the thought of meeting his father-in-law that I expected with bathed breath. The latter was, after all, a fraternal brother whose name was already indelibly inscribed in the ancient rolls of the Craft, he being a member of the pioneer class of Quezon City Bodies of the Supreme Council Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite branch of the Fraternity. Records show that in December 1963, he and together with five others that include WB Jesus B. Venzon and Bro. Andres P. Orilla of Quezon City Lodge No. 122. joined the elite rank of the Scottish Rite brethren when Quezon City Bodies initiated its first batch of candidates to the mysteries of the Scottish Rite’s teachings.
As it was a late Sunday afternoon and a time for her Sunday mass, me and the missus decided to go to the place separately, she coming from the church while I would come directly from home. I thereafter reached the residence of the celebrant, offered the usual greetings and subsequently asked for his father-in-law who replied that the old man was at his room resting. Having asked permission from his wife who reluctantly acquiesced as her father was obviously resting disinterestedly on the party that was being held, I entered the room and seeing him serenely lying in bed, mumbled the customary “hello”, held his right hand and executed the SGOTLP. He was totally surprised and immediately opened his eyes wide. I then asked: “What is your mother lodge?” and on this question he mumbled something which I did not understand. I then said that I’ve come across an article saying that he was a member of the pioneer class of the Quezon City Bodies and to which he replied: “Ah, yes, but that was long ago!” Which made his daughter wonder what topic we just discussed in her presence; the two sentences that I uttered, his attendant replies, and even the SGOTLP that I somehow managed to execute that were totally alien to her ears and eyes. Surely, she must have wondered, how come his old man, who was already totally disinterested in the mundane concerns of the outside world, would so suddenly be interested in a topic she knew nothing about??
And so when I visited the Grand Lodge in time for the 2003 ANCOM I requested Ms. Elo Murillo for his Masonic data. It said:
Name: Eduardo D. Palac
Lodge: Bagumbayan No. 4
Birthday: 10/13/12
Initiated: 12/23/33
Passed: 02/24/34
Raised: 04/28/34
Which now puts him on his dotage years as a ninety-year-old who embraced the tenets of the Fraternity during the depression years of the nineteen thirties! And he joined Bagumbayan Lodge No. 4 when he was but a young lad who has just reached the age of twenty one!!
Satisfied that I finally determined that he was a Mason of the good old days, I then scanned other records and saw that in the book “Philippine Lodges” which I had the privilege of co-authoring, an entry on page 158 on the history of Dagohoy Lodge No. 84. said that among the brethren who periodically attended the stated meetings of this lodge at Tagbilaran include the name Eduardo D. Paloc (which we misspelled with an “o”) who would come all the way from his hometown in Calape which is some 42 kilometers away from this provincial lodge.
That he was in his lifetime an active member of the Craft, on this I felt certain judging from his membership in the Quezon City Bodies and his periodic attendance at Dagohoy Lodge No. 84 whenever he visits his hometown in Bohol. But whether he practiced Masonry’s tenets when he migrated sometime in the nineteen seventies to “the land of the brave and the home of the free” I could not guess, for even his daughter who stays with him in Guindulman (his other five children, all girls and now married and now all residing in the States) and his son-in-law do not know that he was a true-blue member of the Craft.
And might as well, for in this rustic community Masons are still regarded with guarded, if not scornful disdain for joining a brotherhood that is anathema to the Church!!
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