A son who never show up in his dad's funeral.....

I would like to believe that there is bad blood between the father and son. The fact that he opted to stay away from his family and spend his retirement days in a far away country may mean that something is not right in their relationships. However, having a not so good relationship with our father should never prevent us to pay our last respect to them. I believe that a forgiving heart is all it takes. Whether our parents has been a good or a bad parent to us, we still owe them our lives.

What a good heart he got. My heart goes to him and I'm thankful that he find it more important to help and share what he got. It's not quite not happier though that he wasn't visited by his own family. Honestly, it is just sad. I don't even want to guess the reasons behind but still I am thankful that what he was gifted of was shared and paid forward in my country. Cheers! Thanks for sharing!

This was a very sad moment of realisation for Sir J. I get a strong feeling here that his son didn't agree with him retiring to the Philippines, but that he went anyway, to do what he wanted to do. Maybe Sir J thought it was just a momentary disagreement, and that when it came to his end, the son would have forgiven him and flown to the Philippines to be at his bedside. But perhaps he was wrong in thinking he might have been forgiven. After all, he had cut himself off from the family to help with education in a country far away from his own. I'm not sure about this, it seems a strange situation, but I would have thought that however the son felt about what his father wanted to do with his life, he should have shown his support and respect when he approached the end of his life. He should have made time to be at his bedside, to say goodbye. After all, whatever happened in later life, the father had given the son a good education for him to be working in a prominent company in the States. I just have the strangest feeling that he supported education in the Phillipines because he wanted to give a poorer country the education he was able to give his son. But, had his son scorned him for that? So sad.

Maybe he didn't leave the US in good terms with his son and family. It is sad that none of his immediate family were there when he passed away, even beforehand.

It happens. This is life. In Hinduism, it is the God-assigned duty of a son to carry out last rites of his father. But there are cases where sons have not done their duty. They will have to answer the God.

Could it be possible that he spent so much time and money on the Universtiy and the scholars and didn't leave time for his son and family?

Maybe he didn't leave in good terms with his son and family. It is sad that his immediate family was there when he passed away, even beforehand. His son may not have wanted to get into the problem with who called, I mean he doesn't know any of you, so he just wanted to be cordial to the person who called and tell them he would be there. We will never know now.

the only way to understand that is to talk to the son. Although this man might have been a great man in the public eye, we do not know what kind of relationship he had with his son. Maybe they had a big fight, maybe he did something to his son so bad he could not forgive him. Maybe he did not even intend to hurt his son but he did, maybe his son is just a spoiled brat we do not know and only the son knows why he did what he did.

that is very sad...perhaps they felt estranged from him since he left - it could be due to financial reasons - but mstly it might just be kids who couldn't take time out from their own lives.

That is heartbreaking. I think maybe he didnt spend enough time with his son and too much time and money at the scholarship. Also with him being in a different country It's harder to know if he passed away. Expessially if nobody from the US showed up.