Tiotio family gathers to celebrate passages

Nothing brings Filipino families together like a birthday. Last week Facundo and Ruby Tiotio gathered friends and relatives for their daughter Charlene’s 22nd birthday and to send their son, Facundo Jr. off to Afghanistan.

Tables piled high in the Catholic Church parish hall with mostly traditional delicacies - roast and stewed pork, fried chicken, rice noodles, mango salad, carp in sweet and sour sauce, slowly vanished under the onslaught of guests who came and went in small waves through the evening.

The Tiotio’s are literally Jasper’s first family in the small, growing Filipino community. Ruby arrived 16 years ago and six years later gathered Facundo and their children around her.

“I’m happy, and proud and a bit worried,” Ruby Tiotio said, describing her feelings for Daphne and Facundo Jr.

Facundo grinned happily, urging guests to celebrate with food and drink. He was full of pride for his son, who is carrying on the family’s warrior tradition.

“He is the eye of the tiger,” Facundo said, recalling his father’s military record in the Second World War.

Felipe Tiotio, a captain in the 66th Infantry Regiment, North Luzon, led guerrilla resistance against occupying Japanese forces, Facundo explained.

“They called him ‘tiger of the mountain’,” he said.

Facundo Jr. a private in the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry, was “a little scared, a little excited” as he contemplated the five-month tour of duty in Kandahar.

“This is what I was trained to do; I’ll be applying what I learned in battle training,” he said.

“I’m concerned about leaving my wife, Cecelia, behind in Edmonton, and my family. But we’ll be in touch by satellite phone.”

Facundo Jr. graduated from Jasper High School in 2001. He completed a two-year course in police studies at Grant McEwan Community College and applied for postings with the police and the army.

“The army called first,” he said, and laughed.