Dear Mother

Thank you mother for making me the person I have become.
You have taught me a lot of values, not by your words but by your actions.
Values which helped me shape my life
And made me become the person I am now.

By loving me unconditionally, you showed me how I can also do this to my children.
I still remember that even if you were not in favor of my activism,
but nevertheless you respected my decision
and continued to give me your motherly support.
You accepted my fellow activists into your home
and fed them when they were hungry.
When I asked you why you did this, you replied:
Because out there in Manila is also another mother
taking you into her home and feeding you.

While I inherited from father a great sense of self-pride,
you tempered it by teaching me to be humble.
Having a great amount of self-confidence combined with humility
enabled me to find my place in this foreign country where I am now.
My self-confidence allowed me to undertake new things
entirely unknown to me.
But more importantly, humility allowed me to learn from others and from my experiences.
Real self-confidence, I now learned, is only possible when combined with humility.

In you I have also seen a very strong and independent woman,
and a person with such analytical capacity.
When somebody tells me that I possess these qualities,
I immediately reply with a great sense of pride:
I got these from my mother.

Yes, if there is anybody in this world
who made me become the person I have become,
that is you my dear mother.
And I thank you for this,
and I know that my children are also thankful
for having a mother I have become.

It’s been almost 18 years since you left us in this world.
But my memory and love for you remain as clear and strong as ever.