Daddy’s Girl

He left his family in 1979 to earn a living abroad. He never failed to send them letters and packages. But most of all, he never failed to be a father to his daughter and husband to his wife. When he comes home for a short break, he makes sure that everybody is happy. Some people tagged him as “Santa Claus”.

He wanted a son. He never gave up on this each time he comes home. He succeeded 10 years after his first child (daughter) was born.

He’s always been a good responsible head of the family. For 17 years of working abroad, he never failed to give the best that a father/husband could ever give his family. But life sometimes is unfair. After 17 years of service to a foreign land, he lost his job. He actually came on vacation and went back, but came home again just few weeks after when he left. Came home frustrated for he lost his job. He has a son on his 6th grade, a daughter who was on her 4th year in college, and a wife to support as what he had promised when they got married. But how when he is jobless. He had sold all his jewelries including his wife’s. Tried his level best to find another job but this time, he failed. On the other hand, he was lucky to have a daughter who had carried the load during those times. His daughter did all her best to support the needs of the whole family. She stopped from schooling and never gave up on them, for she knows that her father did all his best for them too and even sacrificed every single and important occasions in the family.

There was a time when he was ill. His daughter was earning 4K a month and had to pay all the expenses. No matter how the daughter encourages the father to see a doctor, the father would say no. He doesn’t want to be another burden financially speaking. But the daughter did not give up convincing him. She took her for a therapy. He got well, not so well but good enough to face the day again.

Until his daughter got the chance of putting up a small sari-sari store just for them to survive. She worked hard for them. For her father basically who she thinks was their “hero” for the past years. And for that, her father focused on the store. He would stay there 24/7 for he was afraid to miss a single Peso against a stick of cigarette or say a candy.

God is good. His daughter was blessed to work abroad. Life became a little lighter for them. But he never stopped working for them too. In spite of the monthly remittance that the daughter was sending, he wouldn’t depend on that.

His daughter finally had her first vacation. Spent her 30 days together with the family. A friend of hers was a Dakki (Cartoon Character Pillows) dealer. She visited home to sell at least a pillow or two. But the daughter refused, finding the prices too costly. That time her father was there watching them.

30 days got over. It’s time to go again. A day before the daughter left, she was packing her things in the living room when suddenly someone has thrown a pink Hello Kitty pillow to her suitcase. It was her father! He bought it, for her daughter! She was welled into tears. Speechless! Finally, her father said something “Nakita kita tinitingnan mo yung catalogue, sabi ng kaibigan mo, gusto mo daw yung Hello Kitty, kaya yan binili ko, yan man lang mapabaon ko sayo pagbalik mo dun”.

Until now, recalling those moments makes my heart melts…. Yes, my heart melts…. Because I am the daughter of the man who never gives up on life. Being a youngster back then, I never realized how hard it was for my father to work miles away from home. That was years ago…. until I found myself struggling overseas for the sake of the family. Everything came to a realization when I, myself, had experienced a not-so-good life in the Middle East. Many people think that abroad is glorious! Yes, money-making is easy but working hard for it isn’t. And at the end of the day, we spend it for our family, forgetting ourselves most of the time. I had experienced delayed salaries. Christmases alone. Ordinary birthdays. Self-cared illness. Harrassments. And some sort of bad experiences.

But as they say, after the rain the sun shines. Rewards come after the long struggles. I had finally known my purpose. I had learned the reasons why I should be in Bahrain. God had planned for it. I met my better half here. Just a year ago, we had received an ever priceless gift, our first bundle of joy. All that happened here in Bahrain. It’s no longer a strange land for me. This was where I made life and saved my family back home. And most of all this is where my “own” life started.

To sum it up, being an OFW isn’t always bad. So, never regret if you happen to be one of them! Coz I never did!

MITCH (Appointed as Parenting site’s Technical Support) > 31-year old proud ex-Overseas Filipina Worker-mom, happily married with a 2 year old daughter. I tried to strike a balance between the responsibilities of a wife and mom and the demands of my job in the Middle East. The need to sustain my immediate family back home brought me to work there 8 years ago. And I think I’ve found my reward when I met my betterhalf - Derrick, an Indian national who happened to be the man of my dreams, embraced his culture for the sake of love and our young daughter, whom I regard as “my everything“. She maintains a blog entitled When Silence Speaks. She spends some of her free time problogging and recently got hooked into digital scrapping.