Faithful friends
By Rudy A. Arizala
Santiago, Chile
One week ago, I received a phone call from the “Big Apple” (New York City). “Rudy, this is P. . remember me?” “Of course,” I replied. “You are my good old friend from New York when I was assigned in that city. What can I do for you?”
“Nothing,” he said. “I just would like you to know that my wife and I will be joining our cruise ship which will dock at the port city of Valparaiso, Chile on Valentine´s Day. Before boarding our ship to visit other countries in South America, we would like to visit you in Santiago.”
“That´s wonderful,” I replied. My wife and I shall be waiting for you and your wife to have Valentine dinner together.”
And, indeed, on Valentine´s Day, they arrived in Santiago. For two successive nights during the time they were in Santiago, we had dinner together at Santiago´s restaurants. We reminisced the good old days when we were in New York City and the weekends we spent at their vacation farm house in New Jersey where they have an orchard and vegetable garden.
These friends of ours from the Big Apple would not allow us to spend a single cent during those dinners in Santiago saying: “Rudy, you are already retired from the government service. I have already reached retirement age like you, but being a private law practitioner, I still have an office and earns money. So, the dinners would be on me.”
These Filipino couple who are now American citizens and permanent residents of the Big Apple are among the few friends of ours who remain loyal and thoughtful even if we are no longer in the diplomatic service of the Philippines. During my stint in New York City as Consul General, they never ask from me any favor. What is important to them is our friendship and after my retirement never lose an opportunity to visit us in Santiago despite the distance which separates us now.
I jokingly told them: “You know from Santiago it is difficult for me and my wife to go to New York City and visit you, so you and your wife decided to be the ones to visit us. It reminds me of the saying: ´If Mahomet could not go to the mountain, it is the mountain that goes to Mahomet.´ ”
These two friends of ours from the Big Apple epitomize what an old song refrain immortalized: “Faithful friends are life´s best treasures. / Wealth and fame may pass away / But faithful friends never pass away.”
Our faithful friends from the Big Apple are, indeed, “life´s best treasures” for they bring us joy.