22 Jan 1958 – 03 April 2005

We lost Lito Cruz on the same day Pope John Paul II died. We are now starting to miss Lito, his reassuring voice, and the happy ending we wished for him—to be a Commanding General of one of the five engineering brigades in the Army. It is indeed very sad and hard to let him go!

I learned from my mother that our existence could be associated to the life cycle of a butterfly, its different metamorphoses: the butterfly egg turning into a caterpillar, the caterpillar turning into a pupa, and finally the pupa becoming a very beautiful butterfly. For those who do not know yet, the butterfly egg is usually laid on the underside of leaves of a tree or bush. It is hidden, covered and well protected. While we, human beings, are conceived inside the wombs of our mother. For Lito, the womb of his mother, Corazon, was his first world. He was well loved, always warm and fully nourished by his mother. If possible, he would never want to leave that world anymore.

Nevertheless, after nine (9) months he had to go. So, he was crying when he entered a strange world but welcomed and met by people with smiles. For butterflies, this is now the stage of the caterpillar. For us, this is where we are now! Here, Lito found out that his new world is better than the first one. He had Annie, an alliance founded on true love; and Abigail and Jay, a testament of that beautiful union. There were so many happy memories with mistahs and families where gatherings often held and hosted by his unit. I stood as godfather to Jay. I usually ran to Lito to sustain my vehicular mobility hehe. I surely miss Lito, I can recall countless times during class gatherings that he would ask me to smoke with him – just the two of us away from the maddening group. Kaya kapag tinitigan nya ako alam ko na – skagging time na naman! Lito would always be the first to ask: how I am doing? And he would follow-up with comforting words to make me “high-morale”.

Now, death has done all that death can do but let us not mourn! When the caterpillar perished, it only transforms into a pupa and perish again to eventually becomes a very beautiful butterfly. This is like the life-after-death the Lord has promised us. Lito is now at limbo and will soon enter his new world. A world where there is no hunger, pain or miseries. We are then left now with happy memories he shared; and we look forward to that fine day when we will see him again in that new world, all weariness gone, young, strong and sure, and smiling again, and the sorrow of his parting gone forever! So whenever you see a butterfly, you will remember Lito Cruz. May God Bless Lito Cruz, and the people he loved!