The Dorcas

She always made my reviewer during summer so I would be ready for tests once school starts. She trained me to do advance reading even during school breaks.

She is a great coach whenever I joined the Declamation Contest.

She loved to put blue dyes on our white uniforms so it had a special bluish effect.

She's quiet when she's angry and when I was younger, she won't talk to me until I said sorry. It made me think about my mistakes, swallow my pride and apologize.

When she receives a gift from her friends, she will ask me first if I wanted it and gives it to me without hesitation when I said 'yes'.

She made me choose whether I wanted to study or help out with house chores. Of course, I always chose the former.

She worked very hard, even teaching in three schools (highschool and college), just to give us the best education. I know we can't afford being in a private school but God made all things possible.

When we didn't have money to pay for my tuition fee, especially when our examinations will happen the next day, I usually felt bad but she always told me to just pray for God's provision. She never worried about money. Well, she never worried about anything.

She left for Surigao 8 years ago, not to be away from us, but to be a channel of blessing to her relatives there and start a ministry to her students who needed to know Jesus.

When I started working in an NGO in 2002, she asked me to try to work in a call center or  to work abroad. I didn't like the idea and she respected that. But eventually, maybe with her prayers, I found myself working in a call center, as an Executive Assistant though, from 2007-2009 and I left to work abroad in 2010.

I always ask her to write me letters especially after she left for Surigao. I even bought a journal for both of us so we can share our thoughts for each other even though we're apart and whenever we have an opportunity, we exchange journals.

It breaks my heart that I won't be seeing her for more than a year for the first time in my life. More so, it saddens me sometimes that I wasn't with her during my pregnancy and even after I gave birth. But even though we're apart, I am certain that she whispers prayers for me unceasingly.

She's my Hilda Koronel.

Whenever I have a decision to make, aside from asking God for wisdom, I'd ask my self, "What Would Dorcas Do?" :)

I am always flattered whenever people say that I am like her.

Now that I am also a mother, I am beginning to realize the sacrifices she did especially when she worked from morning until evening when we were younger, which made me appreciate her more.

She wants me to become a lawyer, even now. I am glad that she is more confident in me than I am of myself. I would love to study further but for this year, I would try to master being a mother.

I love you and I miss you so much, Mama! Happy 59th Birthday! Yes, she's 59 but she still looks young. :)