Sanqo (meaning "heart" in the native Galápagosese language) was the late father of Master Oogway
Biography[]
Sanqo grew up in the Galápagos Islands (not sure which one) with his parents and three siblings (two brothers and a sister). He was an honest and hard-working child.
When he was eighteen years old, he had a chance encounter with a beautiful young female tortoise named Qura. Her beauty and kindness caught his attention and they became friends immediately. Over the next few years, their friendship blossomed into love. Then one fateful day when he was twenty, Sanqo did something that would change both their lives forever-he offered Qura his hand in marriage. Ecstatic, Qura accepted his proposal, and with the blessings of their parents, they were married.
Their marriage was a happy one, and their happiness was multiplied when Qura became pregnant with their first fertilized egg. One day during winter (in the Southern Hemisphere), Qura laid the egg, with a healer delivering the egg. Sanqo held her hand to comfort and support her, diligently fulfilling his duties as a husband.
Later in the season, to the young couple's great joy, a male hatchling with Sanqo's aquamarine eyes was born. But the happiness didn't last. For on the very day that their son was born, Sanqo began feeling weary and light-headed, signs of illness. He was enjoying his newborn son when he collapsed, unconscious, to the ground.
He woke up to find himself in the village healer's hut, his wife and parents at his side. He was so tired and weak he had trouble even remaining conscious. Surely enough, the healer diagnosed Sanqo with an incurable (back then, at least) and guaranteed fatal illness (today known as cancer). The happiness of their son's birth was vanquished, replaced by sorrow, and Sanqo and his family were forced to wait for the inevitable in great agony.
During the final days of his life, Sanqo bonded with his newborn son and, since the native Galápagos islanders had no written language, he weakly gave an oral will stating what he wanted done with his estate. His belongings would go to his wife and son.
The young father held on for three days, then finally succumbed to his illness at the age of twenty-two with his beloved wife at his side.
Legacy[]
Sanqo's wife-and widow-Qura, his parents, brothers, sister, and in-laws were all devastated by his tragic, early death. What had been a joyous time had concluded with tragedy and grief.
Facing the bitter reality of being a single widowed mother, Qura became determined to give her fatherless baby son the best childhood possible. She knew that her husband still lived on in their son. Furthermore, the baby just so happened to be Sanqo's very spitting image, with the same aquamarine eyes (note, however, that Galápagos tortoises are colorblind and can't see the colors themselves. To them, the color aquamarine appears as a shade of gray or silver). Hence, she gave him the name Uguei, meaning "reflection" in the indigenous Galápagos language, because that was what he was-his late father's image and reflection. She swore not to let anything bad ever happen to him.
Sanqo was laid to rest, and his grief-stricken family was forced to do what bereaved loved ones do-move on. They did, and never forgot about Sanqo's kind spirit.