“We were talking about the Philippines, and we were talking about relief for the Philippines. He said, 'I know that you love the Philippines. Let's do something,'” Diesel said in an interview with Today, which was aired on GMA News TV's Balitanghali on Tuesday.
In December 2013, Walker died following a car crash north of Los Angeles while trying to raise funds for Yolanda victims.
Yolanda was one of the world's worst and most heart-wrenching natural disasters in 2013, moving many around the world, including celebrities, to pitch in to aid victims. Philippine authorities said Yolanda claimed the lives of over 6,000 people.
Not long after the 40-year-old actor's death, his brother Cody continued his mission to help the Philippines by spearheading a medical mission in Baybay, Leyte as a part of the relief efforts from Reach Out Worldwide Organization established by Paul.
Daughter named after Paul
Meanwhile, Diesel chose to commemorate his co-actor and close friend by naming his third child 'Pauline.'
The baby girl, born March 16, is Diesel's third child with girlfriend Paloma Jimenez, following Hania Riley Sinclair, 6, and son Vincent Sinclair, 4.
"He [Walker] was in the room. There's no other person that I'm thinking about as I'm cutting this umbilical cord. I knew he was there and I felt like, you know, a way to keep his memory a part of my memory, a part of my world," the actor said in an interview with Today.
Diesel and Walker worked together in the street-racing franchise 'Fast and Furious' before the latter's untimely death.
In the first public screening of 'Furious 7' in the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival last week, the preview audience was left teary-eyed after Walker's final appearance in the franchise as law-enforcement officer Brian O'Connor.
In the film, Vin Diesel's character says "those who are lost go on in the hearts of the living" and that was how it felt for many fans attending the midnight screening on Sunday.
'Furious 7,' out in theaters on April 3, ended with a tribute to Walker, closing with the words "For Paul" written in black against a white backdrop. — RSJ, GMA News
source: gmanetwork.com
