Old news article about my Great Grandfather

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I'm not sure where would be appropriate to post this to be honest... but I just wanted to post this link to an old article my mom shared with me about my Great Grandfather who became a local hero in The Philippines a long time ago. I think his story was amazing.

And given his apparent fascination with boats and sailing and how impulsively he decided to one day live his dream by picking up and sailing all the way from Hawaii to his homeland in The Philippines, I like to think there's a chance that he was autistic just like me.

I think it's awesome that he got to live his dream in his tragically short life. Apparently he died from diabetes in his mid 40's... which is the same thing I was recently diagnosed with...

https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/lifes ... 0304-lfrm4

Thats awesome.

He looks a little like "the Rock".

Yeah they are both Polynesian. Dwayne Johnson was Samoan and my great grandfather was Filipino but lived in Hawaii for a while. All this time growing up I was told I was part Hawaiian and I assumed his first wife in Hawaii was a Hawaiian native but it turned out she was a Filipino too.

So I guess I honestly have more Filipino ancestry than I do Hawaiian. It makes me want to start researching about the culture of The Philippines because I'm relatively unfamiliar with the culture of that country.

Your great grandfather was a truly remarkle man! It's seems to me he was a very tough guy that could push through pain and hard ship when needed. That may point in the direction of him being on the autism spectrum. On the other hand he changed direction in life several times always ready to adopt to new situations. That kind of flexibiltiy is not something I associate with autism.

I agree, his story is very commendable.

Except my Mom doesnt like the fact that he abandoned his wife and 8 children back in Hawaii. That must have been rough on them...

And since bipolar disorder runs in my family too perhaps he had traits of that too?

(Moved to Random Discussion as it's not current news)

Very definitely a most colourful and amazing character!

It would be interesting to hear from more members who had interesting relatives, celebs or people in their families who achieved amazing things requiring mental or physical stamina.

I wish they had described the traditional "proa" boat he got his childhood experience on. Probably a single sail, with an outrigger. Probably something like this Fiji island boat. Quite fast little boats.

That's a very cool story. Thank you for sharing it with us.

I'm glad you guys find his story fascinating too.

I actually had an idea... I've started getting more into Appalachian Folk Magic lately (some people also call it Granny Witchcraft. My great grandmother on my mom's side was into it).

One of the things I heard of people who practice hoodoo or folk magic here in the Deep South do is known as "working with ancestors". I talked to some people on Facebook about it and they suggested I print out his pictures and frame them, set a space for him on my spiritual altar, and present him with offerings of things he would have enjoyed (in this case he loved boats and the sea so I could present him with sea shells and boat objects or pictures of boats, maybe even flower lei as he was Polynesian.)

I would basically help keep his memory alive and look at his picture to remind myself that I come from a man who lived his dream and did something very brave with his life. Also maybe ask his spirit guidance in my life.

Very cool story.

Pretty wild how much has changed in less than 70 years - which is now less than one average human lifespan. It's wild the lengths a man had to go to to sail between islands.. the time, risk, skill, energy - everything - and then it was a True accomplishment, celebrated by people for days, awarded high honours, documented in history books.. and now such feats are so common and safe that they're little more than a taxi ride down the street, not the adventure they once were.

Also interesting to read the dates & medical issues timeline.. sure, people still get diabetes, but if they take care of themselves their kidneys don't fail within several years and end their life. A lot has changed with that, too.

But even with ~1/2 the lifespan or so, he lived and Truly LIVED during a time when doing his thing let him Live more than 100 men with 100 year lifespans will live today as Most people aren't very adventurous nor determined, risk taking, hard working and so on that would result in them making such notable accomplishments. People merely breathe for longer. I bet your great grandfather's very content with his breathtaking life vs. hanging around to inhale and exhale for twice as long without ever doing the things he felt compelled to do. I know I would be.

Sailing alone in a small boat across half of the Pacific is no "taxi ride" even today.

The sea is both cruel and capricious.

In the Seventies two guys stole the headlines for their "achievment" of paddling a kayak across the North Atlantic. But they admitted that "it was the Atlantic that ALLOWED us to cross".

When I was a teen I read a book by the first yachtsman to sail alone around the world.

The time was the 1890s the man was retired New England sea captain Joshua Slocum.He had commanded big tall square rigged cargo sailing ships. But now retired he ...bought a little sail boat and decided to sail it around the world because he had nothing else to do.

He succeed and his account was a bestseller and is still a good read. But though both Slocum and Das were probably each other's peer in seamanship ...the Pacific beat the crap out of Das and his boat more then did all seven seas did to Slocum in the later's much longer and fifty years earlier voyage. Slocum and his boat got damaged in storms but not THAT much or that often.

Another interesting thing:

Neither Slocum nor Das had GPS, but Slocum did have watches and a sextant. And did use normal Western style navigation. The article doesnt spell it out but implies that Das didnt even do that. But relied upon ancient indigenious Pacific Islander navigation wisdom based upon observing the sea the stars and nature that he inherited from his dad. His boat was a modern yacht with outboard motors, but he still felt his way across the sea..observed dolphine etc.

Yeah and that's the part that made my great grandfather's story so fascinating imo. He used ancient methods to find his way across the ocean that were probably passed down in the family from generation to generation. He showed that the old ways of doing things which are often mocked or dismissed by our modern thinkers really do have merit.

Another example is my great grandmother on my mom's side of the family. She was what some would probably refer to as a "granny witch" (a term for old wise women here in the deep south esp in the Appalachian Mountains) and she herself knew a lot of old remedies based on the plants growing around her in this region and used whatever things she had available. She taught my mom some interesting remedies that have been in her family for centuries like using aloe leaves and vinegar to treat burns, gargling with salt water to cure a sore throat. Also she claimed she could cure warts by "buying them" with pennies, and she swore she could find welk water with something called a "witching stick".

Also as a woman who lived in the deep south during the Great Depression she was very resourceful and self-sufficiant and not only grew her own food but could gather things in the wild to make her own food. She made things like homemade wine and mayhaw jelly.

However my great grandmother never called herself a "witch" because she was a Christian, but there's no doubt that like my Great Grandfather she was a very interesting woman who knew a lot about nature and tradition.

I wish I could have known both of them.

Here I wrote something about my distant relative who was a writer - a relatively well known one in our region of the country

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=415947&p=9384006#p9384006

P.S. And my great grandfather Franciszek was a so called witch doctor in his village; it was before the war because he died in 1937 Once I described his story on some Polish forum and some person from said forum contacted me afterwards and said she knew this story from this book written by that relative of mine I mentioned and in that manner we managed to recognize each other - she came from my town and we even had attended the same elementary school - she was one year my senior and her first cousin was in one class with me.