(Sunstar) Romayne Danielle Rivera
Sat, 19 June 2021, 3:10 am
IN A life that’s filled with wonder and awe, there are things- and events- that humans will never be able to grasp an answer for.

Call it unique, weird, bizarre, and in some cases a miracle, people– if lucky– will live to see something extraordinary that’s something worth telling.

In today’s article for Father’s Day, this father is nowhere near “ordinary”.

At the age of five, Pepard Bagares lost his sight due to Stevens-Johnson Syndrome which is a rare, serious disorder of the skin and mucous membranes.

To some people, living a life without the ability to see may be daunting, but this never stopped Pepard from living his best life and enjoying his gift– the gift of being a “human calculator” and “human calendar”.

“Wa gyud ko’y training. Pagkamatngon nako og buot, sige ko’g duwa og tansan… Didto ko sa tansan nag Algebra, pero wa pa’y pangan; wala koy ‘ngan nahibaw-an. Akong mga uyo-an nalang nga engineer ang ni ingon nga ‘Algebra na’,” Pepard shared as he recalled the earliest joys in his life which was solving math problems using bottle caps.

According to Pepard, nobody taught him these things. Despite having other toys to play with, his favorites were the bottle caps which allowed him to immerse in a world of numbers and solutions. He even had his own terms like “gamay” for decimal points.

At the age of 14, he traded bottle caps for a comb, where he used the comb’s teeth to compute millions.

“Nag gamit ko og sudlay, makuyawan man ko og maayu. Nadugay ako nalang gi-labay ang sudlay, kadugayan na kat-on ra man ko,” he said.

When Pepard became a teenager, his friends who were engineers admitted to him that he was extraordinary with mathematics, but added that “it wasn’t practical”. Instead, they told Pepard to try playing the piano.

He did give piano a chance, Pepard said, but he couldn’t let go of doing maths.

“Labi nag maguol ko, magsolve-solve dayun ko aron ma-ulian ko. Kung wa pa ni siya, dugay ra kong naguol; kani siya akong counter sa kaguol,” Pepard said.

While the world of Mathematics became Pepard’s comfort zone, love was something he couldn’t put into equations and solutions.

In December 1984, he left Tagbilaran, Bohol to come home to Mandaue City.

“Di man ko magsilbi nga ako rang usa. Mao tung ni ingon si Mama nga ako sang hulman ang maid (helper) ni Lola Sensiang,”