Filipeanut’s kids

Well, they’re not really my kids, they’re other people’s kids.

I first heard about these children at our annual fiesta this past May. A family friend started a “mobile clinic” providing medical care and fundraising to help sick children in poor areas in my mom’s home province of Bohol.

Cool idea right? Hits close to home and everything. But I bet I wouldn’t be here right now helping her out if my mom didn’t have her stroke. I ended up making the clinic a website and now im going to the Philippines to not only visit my mom, but to also volunteer for a week or so.

In 2005 my mom had a stroke that took her ability to use her left side. For the first time I realized how it was like to prolong the life of a loved one. I left school, my friends, family, and fun to take care of the one and only person who cared for me all 25 years of my life. Logically, I knew I could take her to a convalescent home, and I did consider it as a logical route. But because I knew no one else would care for her the way I would, I choose to take care of her myself. I ended up caring for her for two years until her Social Security kicked in and now she’s back in Bohol with family.

Unfortunately, it took my mom’s stroke to make me realize that you will do whatever it takes to make sure someone you love lives. Because if I had made the simple choice of walking away from my mom for one day, or skipping a dosage of medicine for her, she would have died. My mom depended on me and me alone for life. Literally. I carried her to the car. I carried her to the commode to urinate. I bathed her and I fed her. And I did it with honor, because I was caring for the one and only person who did the same for me when I was a baby. She cared for me for more years than I did for her. More than a measly 2 years of caregiving. And like most parents, she did it without pay and without condition.

Its one way to say, yeah, I have an idea of how its like to care for a sick loved one. But its a totally different life. I’ve tasted, however briefly, what mothers and fathers feel when the children they love and hold dear to them is dependent entirely on them for survival. With that said, here I am helping the sick loved ones of others because if there was anything I wanted most besides my mom’s life returned back to normal, it was a sincere, authentic helping hand.

(Shout out to Jo Anne, she’s going home to help for good).