Errand Boy
Back home, Ian was his familys errand boy, a role he played both in his mothers household in Magallanes and in the household of his uncle, Alexander Caasi, in Bankerohan, where he chose to live after his mother and father separated years ago. His uncle, whom he fondly called Daddy, has been his father figure.
When he was not doing house chores, he loved to spend long hours playing his favorite PC game DOTA at Boyztrek, one of the top gaming sites in the city.
Ian’s Wake. Friends and relatives remember a caring and industrious young man in Ian Caasi. Alexander, an uncle, was Ian’s father figure after his parents separated years ago. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
Since his mother, Imelda Damali, and seven other siblings lived in Magallanes, Ian often found himself waking up very early in his uncles house in Bankerohan to go to his mothers so he could help in the chores on his way to school.
He also found time to help another relative in Bankerohan, an aunt who sells steamed corn at the market, by waking up as early as 4:30 in the morning to help reheat the unsold corn from the previous day. He never complained, his uncle told davaotoday.com. Ian even did the laundry. He did not make a huge fuss about it. Its a womans job but he did it.”
On the Holy Week trek to Mount Apo, Ian was also the errand boy. His older teammates, MJ and Crebillo particularly, would ask him to do certain chores during the trek, like cooking rice or doing the dishes, which he willingly did.
It was his first time to scale Mount Apo, whose majesty and beauty have always beckoned climbers and youths like Ian. The climb has long been his greatest dream and his most anticipated, especially after he failed to join the climb the previous year because of a bike accident.
Except for a friend who had been prodding him to go to Samal island instead for the Holy Week, everyone in his family did not stop Ian from joining the climb.
In His Blood
His uncle said that it was in Ians blood to look for adventure. Ian’s mother was an award-winning runner who played in the Palarong Pambansa, the national athletic competition, who once placed second to Lydia de Vega, once the country’s fastest sprinter. Ians uncle was one of the citys pioneering mountaineers while another uncle is a karatedo instructor at the Philippine Navy.
On April 9, four days after his body was recovered under the dark waters of Lake Venado, Ian was airlifted from Kidapawan to Davao City and brought to his uncles home in a modest white wooden coffin. As a final tribute to a young man who had such undying passion for the mountain, the helicopter carrying Ian’s body circled the peak of Mount Apo before it landed in Davao City.
His uncle plans to organize a climb to Mount Apo next year to commemorate Ians death in Lake Venado. He also plans to make a scrapbook of Ians life. Its my way to remember and to make other people remember that Ian lived his life to the fullest, he said. (Angely Pamila M. Chi/davaotoday.com)
Related story: Mountaineer’s Death a Blunder of DOT, PAMB
