Wilfredo Calimbas

Freddie or Fred is the oldest in the family. He was a mechanical engineer studied at Mapua Institute of Technology and graduated from Feati University. He worked as a packaging engineer in the Philippines and continued that career in the US. 

Fred was kind of aloof from us although we did spent some time playing together. In later years we play chess every afternoon. He would beat me and I would beat him. He has his own barkada and I have my own. Fred is fastidous in the clothes he wear, the shoes he have. He is a very handsome young man. He always combed his hair neat and tight. I look up to him being my older brother but we rarely talk. My grandmother Lola Menay said his favorite is Fred. During the Japanese occupation in WWII when Fred was a baby, they fed him the only chicken egg of the day. Fred likes to play the guitar. He also likes to draw. He draws faces of movie stars like Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley. 

Fred married Guina Garcia from Quezon province. They have three children- Bess, Mark and Napoleon. I remember holding Bess in my lap when she was a baby. Mark and Napoleon was born in the US. They immigrated around 1969 and firstly settled in Seattle, WA. I came by there when I immigrated myself but I continue on to Chicago. Then Fred found a job in New York. He drove his Mustang across the US from Seattle to NY. He told me he took in two hitchhiker girls who were going to attend the big gig in Woodstock. So this must be Aug. 1969. They settled in Nyack, NY. His family still lives around there. Fred continued as a packaging engineer where his talent for drawing is used plus his mechanical engineering background. 

Fred died on Aug. 2012. Fred died of a little known but deadly disease called Cadasil. Even some doctors do not know what is this disease. Cadasil is Celebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy With Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy. It is a form of hereditary crebral angiopathy. It is caused by mutations in the NOTCH3 gene. This condition is inherited from one affected parent. In few cases it may result also from the new mutations in the gene. Do we have a history of cadasil or cadasil-like sympton in our family? I do not know of any member of our family, from father to mother with a similar sympton. Although my father died at an early age of 45, none of his siblings were sick with anything similar to that disease. 

Fred divorced from Guing. For a while Fred lives alone and then he decided to go back to the Philippines. He lived in my mother's house in Hermosa. He lived together with a woman named Myrna and had a daughter Lilian. I visited him from time to time noting that his condition is getting worse. From a stutter to shuffle walking, not being able to walk,  to being bed ridden. We transferred Fred to a nursing home. Myrna and Lilian left the house and were gone from his life forever. Around August of 2012 we got a call that Fred condition worsen and he died soon after. Thelma, Cynthia and myself traveled to the Philippines for the funeral. Fred was cremated.