"Play ball", he told me. Nevermind that it was 12 midnight and I still need to be awake. Nevermind that it was my 30th birthday and I still need to work the next day. Nevermind - because at that brief moment in time, I saw the Titan in him.

He was the Past President of the Philippine Medical Association, the past president of the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians, and a whole list of Past Presidents.
He is an icon. A symbol of something I will spend the rest of my life trying to emulate.

I dare not mention his name of course, as if by mere utterance implies a sort of sacriledge, as what he is, is really beyond words and beyond names.

So how did I meet such an icon?

It was of course a rainy afternoon like all interesting encounters. Accompanied by a friend for a medical mission, I never knew one day this icon would teach me ambition, politics and how to deal with the higher echelons of society.

He told me of his life and his struggle. He told me of his family and of an unrequited love of a woman he followed all the way to Bacolod only to find another love in return. A love that now seems to challenge time and, with the onset of early Alzheimer's, even memory.

He told me of how he built an institution that still bears his influence. And how he defined what it meant to be legendary.

But more than the prestige and the awards, he also taught me compassion for the poorest of the poor.

"Play ball", he told me. So that in the end, you can help those whose hearts have been broken and those whose lives have been ruined by the cold whims of fate.