MANILA, Philippines—“You taught me how to dream ... You were the courage I never had on my own,” film and TV actress Ina Feleo said in an eulogy to her father, veteran actor Johnny Delgado, during a necrological Mass held at the Mt. Carmel Shrine in Quezon City on Monday night.

Johnny, 61, died Nov. 19 after a year of battling cancer of the lymph nodes. He was buried at the Loyola Memorial Park, Marikina City, on Tuesday afternoon.

Johnny’s eldest daughter Ana, a singer and stage actress, admitted that she had trouble gathering her thoughts while making her own eulogy. “This was because Dad had such a big heart. His love was so overwhelming. All my life, he was cheerful and so full of energy. It was so painful to see the love of my life suffer,” Ana explained.

Ana then sang George and Ira Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me.” She recalled that when she was 10, he made her promise that, whenever she sang it, it would always be for him.

Johnny’s wife, actress-director Laurice Guillen, thanked all the people that Johnny met in his work on films, TV and in theater. “The arts gave meaning to his life,” said Laurice.

Johnny appeared in more than 50 films and TV shows, then went on a hiatus with his wife before coming back together in the award-winning movie, “Tanging Yaman.”

Laurice, a Marian devotee like Johnny was, thanked his nurses for their “warm hands and gentle voices,” and his friends who gave the actor with “spiritual comfort, love and the strength to fight his illness.”

Johnny’s brothers Bobby and Cito also delivered eulogies, as did TV director Edgar Mortiz, and actors Christopher de Leon and Amy Austria. Tirso Cruz III performed Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” and Ricky Davao sang his version of “What a Wonderful World.”

Ina said his dad asked that his favorite rosary be placed in the coffin with him. “It was a wooden rosary with rose carvings. It’s special to him. He even painted over it,” Ina told the Inquirer .

“Ikaw at Ako,” the theme of “Labing Labing,” the short film that Ina wrote and directed, was played during the wake. Composed by Johnoy Danao, Johnny recorded the song shortly before his death.

Seen at the wake were Sharon Cuneta, Aga Muhlach, Lorna Tolentino, Sandy Andolong, Pops Fernandez, Jericho Rosales, Derek Ramsay, Lou Veloso, Isabel Rivas, Al Tantay, ABS-CBN executives Cory Vidanes, Malou Santos and Olivia Lamasan.