Nick Flores, fellow alumni of Class 59

The photo of Nick above, with Delma and me, was taken at the 91st alumni homecoming in 2010. Nick's class celebrated their well-attended 50th anniversary in 2009, and he also came back for another reunion - alas, it was to be his last as he passed away in late 2010. His class was in 3rd year when we were in 1st year: the same batch as Cecilia Batnag, Josie Caccam (both have also joined their Maker); Cynthia de Guzman, Eduardo Natividad, Amelia Querimit, and others.

Nick is a graduate of UP- Accounting, and joined SGV. He was instrumental in setting up the SGV Thailand office which also had jurisdiction on other neighbouring countries. There is a photo of Nick in SGV's coffee table book for their anniversary, a young Nick Flores burning accounting sheets in a drum at their Saigon office just before the Vietnam War broke out.

We used to run into each other at receptions, especially those sponsored by the Philippine Embassy in Bangkok, and had been keeping up with his "medical bulletin" through a next-door neighbor of ours, a colleague of Nick at SGV, the Ballesteros'. Just how fleeting our lifetimes are: parang kahapon lamang, we run into each other in the Trancoville-bound jeeps or Trinidad-bound buses, the City High corridors, cafeterias in UP campus, and at Sukhumvit Soi Philippines.

Nick, we will miss you.