For nearly 20 years, Marian has carried her family’s heaviest burdens with quiet strength, choosing patience and loyalty every time life asked more of her. She faces each new challenge with composure.

When her mother Cynthia suffered a stroke in 2007 and a hip fracture that left her in a wheelchair, Marian, then 23, was just beginning her own family life. Instead of stepping away, she opened her home and her days to her mother, becoming caregiver to both an ailing parent and three growing children without hesitation.​

Marian’s routine meant changing diapers for her children and her now 80-year-old mother, lifting and bathing them, managing school runs, and accompanying Cynthia to therapy sessions, all while keeping the household going.

It was untenable for the former ballerina teacher’s then husband and they separated. Her lived-in partner also left her. The heartbreak healed with her now husband, JC, who is helpful so far. Her steady dedication eventually moved him to share the load, carrying his motherinlaw to and from the wheelchair whenever he was home.​

As their children grew and finances tightened, Marian made the painful choice to work overseas, entrusting her mother to her siblings so she could provide for everyone. When Cynthia’s eyes deteriorated and depression from the condition set in, her caretakers could not cope with her needs and Marian did not hesitate to give up her job and come home, accepting once more the full weight of caregiving.​

Fighting for her mother’s eyesight

Haunted by the memory of maternal aunts who “died blind,” Marian refused to let history repeat itself and sought every possible treatment for her mom. Even when the cost of Cynthia’s planned cataract surgery kept rising with each new complication, pushing the operation beyond the family’s means, she kept searching until JC’s delivery work led them to discover the Tzu Chi Eye Center (TCEC) in Sta. Mesa, Manila.​

In September 2025, despite a severe tropical storm battering Luzon, Marian traveled from Imus, Cavite to Manila with her husband and mother for the crucial eye checkup.

Tzu Chi Medical Foundation Philippines, which runs the TCEC, said volunteer ophthalmologist Dr. Catherine Fernandez attended to Cynthia’s case.

Cynthia’s case was complicated — one eye beyond saving and the other clouded by mature cataracts — but Marian remained composed as volunteer doctors explained that surgery was the only way to know if vision could be restored.

When Cynthia finally underwent the long, careful operation on 3 November and later joyfully declared that she could see again and was “no longer blind,” Marian’s tears were those of someone who had endured years of strain without breaking.​

Even knowing her mother will continue to need close attention because of other illnesses, Marian is ready to keep caring for her for as long as she can. She may say that she has not “accomplished” much beyond raising educated children and preserving a loving relationship with her mother, but her perseverance shows a different kind of achievement—one built on endurance, quiet courage, and a promise she never walked away from.

(Based on the article “A filial daughter’s Christmas miracle” by Jamaica Digo of Tzu Chi Medical Foundation Philippines published in Medium.)