Tomás Rivera (1926–1994) married Elena in 1950 and spent thirty-eight years at the port in Cebu. He built most of the furniture in the house on Mabini Street, including the stairs everyone complains about.
Work
He started as a checker on the wharf at seventeen and retired as a foreman. He kept every payslip in a biscuit tin, which is how the family knows what a docker earned in 1961.
Family
Five children. He is remembered as the quiet one, which everyone agrees was a survival strategy. He carved the long table that forty-one people ate from at the 1978 reunion.
Stories about them
“He never once raised his voice. He would just look at you, and then go and fix whatever you had broken.” — his son Diego