Raymond Mendoza

David Paek’s funeral

The past week and a half have been a time of stress, grief, and lack of sleep. For many of us, our lives will restart back to normal over the next few weeks. For a smaller group of us who had David in our everyday lives, we just have to pick up the pieces and take life step by step.

David Young Min Paek, my brother in law, had his funeral today. It brought an ounce of closure to a tumultuous time where more tears were cried more than any other time in my family.

For those unable to attend the viewing, it was very well attended. It started with a short Catholic service held by the priest who married Eileen and David. As usual, Father Peter provided a touching homily from his heart.

There was also another Catholic service by the priest who overlooked Tito Nonong’s funeral. His passion was comforting that night.

The night was capped by a Christian service which was translated from Korean to English. The minister delivered a powerful sermon which touched specifically on David’s life and how relative to other deaths, David’s was a blessed one.

A slideshow of David played throughout the night that allowed attendees to see parts of David’s life they may not have known of.

It was truly another sad night, but better than others because we were in the comfort of family and friends.

The funeral today provided powerful and touching sermons and homilies from the Catholic and Christian priests just like the night before. The services were accented by a powerful singer, Emilio, who also sang at Melissa and Jason’s wedding. Emilio’s powerful and angelic voice filled the packed chapel.  His heartful rendidtions of “Our Father”, “Ave Maria”, and “I’ll raise you up” loosened many tears in the chapel. I wish to hear him sing again under better circumstances.

Andrew Lee, David’s best man, and I followed the Christian service with our Eulogies. I wanted to make Dave proud so I tried my best to stay composed and keep it together.

The “last respects” procession allowed all attendees to greet and console Eileen and David’s immediate family after they paid their last respects. It was one of the most difficult line ups to be in. I was last in line and I received a long and heartfelt hug from David’s dad.

David’s childhood friends: Andrew, Calvin, and Ray Kwon along with David’s adulthood friends: Jason, Cliff, and I were the Paul bearers. Led by Toronto Police escort, we made our way to the burial site.

Koreans have specific traditions about burial sites. They must be facing south and as high above water as possible.

God held back the rain during the ceremony, but the overcast weather matched the mood. Tears are automatic at the burial ceremony especially when you place the flowers on the casket. The sounds of deep sobbing from David’s parents were unfortunately very familiar. As my dad said to Tito Arding a year earlier, I said “So long Kuya”.

The sadness was numbed by the reception at Mandarin. The focus was shifted from mourning to food and friends and that was the appropriate way to finish the day.

Photos from the funeral and slideshow can be found here.

A sample of pictures are below.