Son's Eulogy Tugs At Heartstrings

KUCHING, Feb 26 (Bernama) - "Goodbye daddy. We love you always. We'll miss you."These words in the eulogy delivered by 11-year-old Damian Unting tugged at the heartstrings of hundreds of mourners who gathered in the St Thomas's Anglican Cathedral here for the funeral service of Batang Ai assemblyman, Datuk Dublin Unting Ingkot, who died Tuesday.

Tears flowed freely as he added: "Our birthdays will be without daddy from this day onwards. We will not be celebrating Father's Days like before. Our Christmas will be without you daddy."

To some of you, our daddy could be just an ordinary person but to us, he was a very special person.

"We are proud of our daddy, of all that he was, and all that maybe daddy would have liked to be if times had been different. We are mostly proud to say this one thing: of all that he was -- he was and always our beloved daddy," he said with his sister Deandra Faith, 8, and brother Dillion Abit, 5, by his side while their mother, Datin Forline Moriah Demies Impoi sobbed uncontrollably.

Dublin, 56, the state Assistant Minister for Sports and Agriculture (Research and Coordination) died at the Normah Medical Specialist Centre (NMSC) here, without regaining consciousness from a coma that he slipped into after suffering a stroke nine months ago. He died at 1.25am on Tuesday.

Damian said his father, the Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) vice-president and long-serving Batang Ai assemblyman, loved his constituency so much.

"Daddy travelled to Lubok Antu every week to meet the people. We knew that daddy loved his job very much and he loved his hometown. We knew how caring and dedicated he was towards his work to serve the people.

"We used to complain why daddy came back late. We complained sometimes that daddy didn't give us hugs and kisses because he was still at work. We will miss waiting for daddy to come back from work from now on," he said.

In the eulogy, Damian also comforted their mother.

"Mommy, we know you are very sad. We are sad too. We will go through this together. We promise not to disappoint you. We will make Mommy and Daddy proud of us," he said.

Hundreds of people attended the funeral service, including Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu and his colleagues in the state cabinet.

Dublin was laid to rest at the Batu Kitang Anglican Cemetery in Batu Kitang, at 4.30 pm Thursday.-- BERNAMA