Rosa ng Buhay Ko

You saw her with blue green lips and teeth in my previous post.

She’s just been here for two weeks and yet we have already noticed that when she’s eating, she takes her time, wants a full meal beginning at breakfast complete with hot soup and fried rice. She takes her meals on the dot, and one-to-sawa, she eats all she could take, has nice brown hair color and looks stoned whenever I give here instructions.

Edmund observed and commented a few times “siguro mayaman yan dati”.

Last night, while she was in the kitchen, I asked about her life. Yes sir indeed. Her family wallowed in cash before.
Note that I used the word “wallowed” and not rich or affluent. Notice that I said “cash” and not money.

If they were oozing with cash before, what happened? Why and how did her cash disappear?
Gulong ng Palad?

Here’s her buhay:

Her parents hailed from the province while she and her sister were born in Manila. She dreamed of becoming a professional dancer. She joined every dance program in school. Her parents only finished elementary grade and they were already more than satisfied and proud when she graduated from high school. Her parents saw no reason for her to pursue a college degree because for them, a high school graduate is already way beyond what her parents have reached. Rosa gave up her dream of becoming a dancer because of her parents’ objection. Her next dream was to become an executive secretary. Her mother said being a secretary is not a decent job. She might end up sitting on her manager’s lap. A secretary daw is a sexretary.

With no one to finance her dream of going to college, Rosa started working as sales lady, factory worker, janitress in hotels, banks and offices. In one of her assignments at Noa’s Ark Building in Escolta, she met her future husband who’s working in the accounting department. They were civilly married at the City Hall of Manila on November 5, 1991 and had a church wedding on December 8, 1991 at the Espiritu Santo Parochial Church.

She stopped working after she got married. Her father in law was a private lawyer. His kumpadre who was their ninong sa kasal recommended her husband to work at the Bureau of Customs.

Cash started flowing in 2002 when her husband started working in customs. Rosa said she’s not sure whether he’s an employee, a fixer or customs broker.

In 2003 she gave birth to their youngest child.

Her husband comes home everyday with wads of cash. He hides it under the pillow, under their clothes inside the cabinet and she discovered that he had two bank accounts.

Aside from the weekly budget for their household expenses, her husband gives her and each of their children personal allowance.

She lived in luxury, always shopping in SM Megamall and eating in restaurants.

In 2005, she discovered that he was having an affair with a woman he met in the canteen at the Bureau of Customs. According to her investigation, she works in the canteen during daytime and is a call girl at night.
Rosa said she was very aggressive, calling their house several times a day to speak to her husband and even in the wee hours of the morning. Her husband started to disappear for several days and would just come home when he and his mistress were fighting.

Their life started to change. He no longer gave her big amounts of money. He stopped giving her allowance and eventually stopped feeding them so she had to withdrew from whatever savings she had in the bank. Everything she has saved including that of her children were gone. It became so bad her children went to school with empty stomachs. One time she asked help from her husband, he gave her P50.

Their neighbor told her that her husband has bought a car and built a house in Cavite for his mistress.
Rosa went to the Bureau of Customs and made a scene. She talked to his superior and told him her husband has abandoned them and refused to provide for her children’s education and sustainance.
According to her, he was fired from his job. The last thing she heard was that he and his mistress frequent the casino.

Rosa was forced to send her children to Catanduanes where her father lives. They are all in school except her eldest daughter who’s already married and living in Laguna.

Rosa believes that one day, she and her ex-husband would see each other again.
When that day comes, she hopes to prove to him that she and her children survived without him.