Goodbye Danny Uy

When I met him, Danny was already suffering from advanced diabetes, which meant he was in pain whenever he took a bite of food. A voracious eater, he and I would be at Good Taste at the old Dangwa station while waiting for our other buddies Derek B, Philip Evgeny and Nico to finish their bowling tournaments at Center Mall.  He had “straight plumbing” which meant that none of his food intake was going to remain in his body. He was uber-emaciated, although you could see by his features how good looking he must have been when he was healthy.

And Danny was insulin-dependent, forever taking insulin shots and then eating a chocolate bar afterwards, which according to him, adjusted his blood sugar to normal levels.

At one time, he had to take his shot before we entered SM North EDSA. We were in the parking lot watching him inside the car, sticking a syringe needle into his tummy and the security guard came up to us asking what our friend was doing in the car. Nico and I replied at the same time, “Drugs…” and laughed.

He dressed well most of the time, preferring a black leather jacket, white t-shirt and jeans as part of his look. Whenever he had a girlfriend, and he had quite a few, we would always meet the girl-of-the-moment during the evening games, where we would watch him show his affection by teasing her constantly. Of course it was hard to keep up with all those names.

He was a character, always starting a debate, forever clarifying the rules of the games and thinking up of different scenarios (pusoy, trisoy, quatsoy), and totally superstitious (hey, he was a gambler so the “lucky lighter” was important to him), and commanded the respect of the junior members of the Baguio Chinese Community.

Here’s a classic Danny Uy Story:

One day he was at the ‘black market’ side of the Baguio City Market to deliver (this is according to him) a second hand cellphone to one of the regular stall-owner-cum-pusoy-players there. As soon as he got there, the game was interrupted by a police raid and the folks hauled off to the station, and Danny was brought along with the rest.

The players were told to hand over the money in their pockets as “evidence” of illegal gambling activities. Of course they never saw their money again.

At the station Danny, who was already a familiar face to the cops, having been the subject of a prior raid, insisted that he was just selling a cellphone (it was one of his businesses).

The cops believed Danny and actually ended up buying a few cell phone units from him!

Danny, according to Danny, was his mom’s favorite, especially because he was her eldest son. And for those of you familiar with Chinese customs, you will understand. Though him we got to know about his siblings Nilo, Helen and Glennis, about whom he would talk from time to time. He would tell us about how his mom Frances and his dad Nilo met, how they started their businesses, and what business opportunities they were planning to explore.

My favorite story is how he went sent to China for a year to learn to speak Chinese.

“So, do you speak Chinese?”

“I was sent to an International School — everyone spoke English!”

It was when Texas Hold ‘Em became in vogue that we stopped the nightly games. The boys went on to conquer other tables all around the city and even in the country. From this group came the first Philippine Poker Tour Champion (2006) and the runner-up the next year. It was then that we pretty much lost touch, although he would bring friends over, from time to time to my new place. But Baguio being small, it was easy to keep up with what Danny was doing, which was of course being in any and all the game tables around the city nightly.

This afternoon, we received word Derek B. that Danny Uy passed away. He left quietly in his sleep. He was just 39 years old. And our best good friend was gone. Just like that.

Nico said, in trying to cheer himself up, that Danny is finally rid of his body, although I know that his is taking the loss much harder than I am. I mourn the intelligent conversations, the fun we will no longer have, the passing of a very good and loyal friend.

Baguio will be a lot less fun now.

And Danny Uy, we will talk about you forever. We miss you already.

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Lisa’s Notes:

The photo above is classic Danny Uy, as we saw him every night. Cigarette in mouth, cards in hand, slumped while reading them with his failing eyesight (we had to forgive him the mix-up in diamonds and hearts suites), sitting up straight only when he was ready to submit, his eyes tiny slits and his lower lip jutting out. This is how Nico and I will remember him. Always.

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