Birth date: Jul 3, 1949 Death date: May 31, 2025
It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of a beloved husband, father, grandfather, and brother, Alejo S. Cayanan, who peacefully passed away on May 31, 2025, at the age of 75. Alejo touched the lives of many with his Read Obituary
A lot of my fond memories of my Tito Leo were all during when we were just kids and we had just moved to the States. The school year hasn’t started yet and we were just there at home. He would come home from work and greet us kids and would sometimes take us to some of his favorite spots in San Leandro. It was his way of helping us adjust and love our new life in the United States. He would scoop all of us kids into his car, and drive around San Leandro, pointing at different establishments like Foster’s Freeze, Mountain Mike’s, the Tennis courts, to name a few, seemingly teaching us the ropes. He would beam with pride as he shared with us these spots that would make him happy. One memory that I know I will never forget was when he took us to KFC, something that we were already familiar with since it was also a restaurant that can be found in the Philippines. Pretty standard to order the food, get your meals to the table and dig in, but for Tito Leo, he wanted to teach us first how to properly enjoy our first KFC experience in the US. He tells me, “okay Bernice, listen, this is what you do, the right way of eating the chicken with your mashed potatoes and gravy…. You grab your mashed potatoes and place a mound of it on your plate, then, you make a well in the middle like this ( as he uses his spoon to push down on the mashed potato mound to create a pool in the middle) … then pour your brown gravy in that well. You can add some coleslaw on the side, grab your biscuit, split it in half spread some butter and squeeze your honey on it. You then grab your fried chicken and dip it in the gravy well! That’s how you eat it!” I love that he took the time to teach us that. It was something so simple, yet it was one of my favorite moments with Tito Leo.
