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Postscript A Good Night’s Sleep

the seating arrangements to make sure that people would interact with each other.
This was about 60 to 80 people which was the maximum that the club could hold.”

Wash planned these dinners to expose American business and thought leaders to
the Philippines, with former US Ambassadors like Nick Platt and John Negroponte
lending insight and gravity to the discussions. Wash and George were supposed to
stay in New York for a week and a half with lunches and dinners already planned.

Philippine Airlines 126 departed Manila past 3 p.m. on October 7, 2017, bound
for New York via Vancouver—normally a 15-hour, 35-minute flight over more than
13,700 kilometers. Wash and George were traveling with Wash’s indispensable driver
and caregiver, Roberto “Junjun” Cabilles, to help carry their baggage around. Father and
son were seated in the last row of business class, while Junjun was close by in economy.

As the plane took off, Wash was still talking about the issue that had been bothering
him earlier. But his mood improved when he reviewed the engagements that had
been set up for him in New York. When the drinks were handed out, he called Junjun
over to take his glass of champagne.

Things soon settled down on the flight. Wash declined to eat anything, and George
dozed off. Sometime around ten in the evening, Manila time, seven hours into the
flight, Wash rose to use the restroom. A flight attendant scurried over immediately
to assist him—apart from his advanced age, they knew he was a special passenger,
a member of PAL’s board, so they kept an eye out for his needs. He was escorted to
the restroom, and he went in. Minutes passed, and he remained inside; the attendant
escorting him began to worry. George had woken up, and was also concerned.

“We got a little bit worried,” George recalls. “They tried to open the door, but then
he pushed it shut. He was still okay at that time. He said, leave me alone, I’m just
doing things here. But then, after that, it was a long time, and he still didn’t come
out. The stewardess knocked again, no response. That’s when we opened the door
again, and found that his heart had just stopped beating. They tried doing CPR and
all that. There was a doctor on board, but the flight attendant was very well-trained.”
Despite their best efforts, Washington SyCip had passed on, less than two hours short
of landing in Vancouver; he was 96. They returned his body to his seat beside George
for the rest of the flight.

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