My father did just that. Today as I reflect on my father’s legacy (he passed away on January 16, 2002), I cannot help but be grateful for who he was. Despite living with a brain tumour for 17 years, he and my mother gave my brother and I the best opportunities, life lessons, and gifts we could ever ask for. He taught us that we are more than our roles, our professions, and our titles; we are spiritual human beings worthy of love and worthy of sharing love with the world.
Prior to his illness, my father, Dr. Jose Zamora Rivero, was a doctor, a martial artist, a musician, a dancer, an outdoorsman, a husband, and a father. Most importantly, he was a living testimony of how one can live with challenges and redefine meaning and purpose for one’s life.
Due to his brain injury, my dad most definitely had challenges that impacted his cognition, his emotional reactivity, his motor planning, and needed constant care for the rest of his life. However, he still lived his best life by engaging vicariously through his family in what gave him meaning, music, martial arts, dance, singing, and celebrating life through family get togethers. Something that strikes me most of his life is that despite losing executive functioning and professional skills, my father was still able to use whatever he had and through this journey, he discovered he had more than he knew. For the benefit of my brother and I, my mother believed in faith, hope, love, and resilience. We were the recipients of this amazing faith, hope, love, and resilience and it is now my vocation to share this with others.
Live your best life possible.
