Rachel Alejandro recalls last moments with dad Hajji: ‘I was still not prepared’
Rachel Alejandro and her dad Hajji Alejandro. Image: Instagram/@racheljalejandro
Rachel Alejandro remembered how her late dad Hajji Alejandro was their family’s “sun,” lamenting how she will now only be able to sing with him in her dreams.
Rachel dedicated a heartfelt tribute to Hajji whom she said “never got old,” through her Instagram page on Wednesday, April 23.
“What happens when the brightest star in a galaxy dies?” she began. “My Dad was our sun and we were the planets, orbiting around him, basking in his warmth and light.”
“As kids, we tagged along to all his activities, be it shows, rehearsals, basketball games — it didn’t matter what it was. We would fall asleep at Dolphy’s house if he was there for an all-night poker game,” she recalled. “There was nowhere else we would rather be than by his side because every minute in his presence was fun.”
Rachel underscored that even when she and her siblings Barni and Ali turned adults and had families of their own, they “craved” their father’s company.
“My Dad was a happy, optimistic man who valued having a good, comfortable life, yes, but more importantly, he prioritized providing for his partner, mother and children,” she wrote. “And his way of doing that from the time he had me at the young age of 19, was through his golden singing voice, which is why regardless of how he was feeling, he never cancelled shows.”
Recounting Hajji’s last shows before he was hospitalized and was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, Rachel said the late singer endured and performed despite the “considerable pain.”
“For Dad, every show is a blessing and performing for you all is our highest calling as singers,” she said.
“[Two] months of hospital stays and spending time with him at his home and I was still not prepared as I helplessly watched him breathe his final breath,” she lamented. “What happens to those a star of this magnitude leaves behind? I don’t have answers for that yet as I struggle to grasp living in a universe without our Daddwaps.”
Despite the overwhelming grief, Rachel vowed to strive to make her dad proud.
“I intend to make him proud in everything I do, to live by his code of honor and goodness, to perform for you all with everything I’ve got and leave it all on the stage every single time,” she said.
“I will now just be singing and dancing with Dad in my dreams,” she concluded.
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Hajji succumbed to cancer on April 21 at the age of 70. Details of the late OPM icon’s wake were not immediately disclosed to the public.
