I am Rina, from Mindanao. Since I was in High School, I had many boyfriends, sometimes classmates, sometimes even married men who liked me because of our poverty in life, I would date married men just for money but they all just passed through my life. I used to think that no man would take me seriously. Until Romy came into my life, he was bread seller, a farmer, a copra farmer and many other honorable jobs.
At first, I didn’t like him because I didn’t fell like I could gain anything from him because he was poor but later I started to like him because he gave me everything I wanted. Until I got pregnant and we got married. We live with his parents and because I was ashamed to be with my in-laws, we decided to separate, because Romy was hardworking, he was able to save money easily and we were able to build a house. We were happy and blessed with two children. Later, Romy built a store for me, so that I could have some entertainment at home while looking our child.
My husband Romy is a hard worker, he probably does almost all the farm work just for our family. He combines his work with managing our store, he does all the groceries and repacking because I have absolutely no idea when it comes to business. Even when our child is sick, he is always the one I can count on, even when I want to help him with planting, he doesn’t make me work, he wants me to just stay home and take care of our children.
Our neighbors say that I am lucky to have my husband because he is hardworking and kind. He even gives me an allowance even when I am just at home but despite my husband’s kindness, I still managed to cheated him, I had an affair with our neighbor Gerald. When my husband left our house, I secretly meet my boyfriend. Until one day my father-in-law discovered our relationship. They told my husband that I have an affair with Gerald, they were angry with me, even their entire family but despite everything, Romy forgave me for the sake of our children.
A few years later, one day Romy woke up writhing in pain. We though it was just a natural stomachache and that day we took him to the herbalist. The herbalist gave him a drink of herbal medicine but he still felt the same way, his stomach still hurt a lot. It took a few weeks for him to feel the same way but even though he was in pain, he continued to work.
A few days later his cousin noticed that he was turning pale and had lost a lot of weight, so he told his elder brother of Romy to see a doctor but Romy didn’t want to, because he said it was just an expense and they didn’t have any money. One night, we were all shocked and panic when I saw Romy writhing in pain and he couldn’t see anything and his poop is already color black which means it is a blood. So we decided to take him to the hospital, there we found out that my husband had stage 4 cancer, I don’t know what I’m feeling that time when I heard a bad news about my husband I felt so very in pain and guilty because I am a wife but I have no idea that my husband is facing a serious illness. We had no idea that he had been feeling this for a long time, he just didn’t tell us.
That day, we didn’t waste any time, we told the doctor to do everything, Romy just got better but the doctor told us that they couldn’t do the surgery because the cancer had spread throughout his body. But we didn’t lose hope, we still hoped that my husband would get better, so we decided to take Romy to Cebu for treatment there, but even there the doctor couldn’t do the surgery because his cancer was already at stage 4. The doctor said that we should just bring Romy home so that he could be with us for the rest of his life. I couldn’t believe what I heard, what immediately crossed my mind was what would happen to me and my children they still young.
Since the day the doctor was told us that there was no hope of recovery, Romy has become irritable sometimes silent and have a times that he staring at me without say anything. Even though I encourage him that the Lord will not abandon us, that we should just pray because only Jesus can help us but all that is irrelevant to Romy, he don’t like to talk anybody in short he lost hope everything.
Early Saturday morning, we were about to leave the hospital but my husband passed away. He had a stomach ache that made his pain so much and just a minutes later he passed away. We took him home dead. When we arrived home, our children greeted us crying and ask me were their father and my answer is my tears.
A few months passed, the store we had left my husband went bankrupt because I prioritized my friends out. We had almost nothing to eat because I didn’t have a job and my children were still in school. Luckily, my in laws was there to always to give us food.
In my busy life with my friends, I didn’t realize that I had neglected my children. My eldest daughter got pregnant and to make matters worse, her boyfriend didn’t take responsibility for it, he said he went to Manila to work but for me, it was okay for them not to be together because I still wanted my daughter to finish her studies despite of her situation.
After 9 months my grand son born. I was decided that my daughter would continue her studies for her future and I would take care of her son. My daughter didn’t disappoint me, she graduated from College and now she has decided to apply abroad.
Right now, my daughter is in Singapore, working as a Caregiver and she sends us money every month. She renovated our house and reopened our store because I know despite everything happened, my husband will be happy now because I continued the small business he left us. We may have stumbled in our lives, but we did not give up on the challenges of our life and I know that my beloved husband would continue to guide us.
