Giving meaning to Mother’s Day

BENCHWARMER

Ramon Dacawi  

Two women, of the same age and names, are in distress.

Emilia Casio-Tallongen, a  51-year old Baguio streetsweeper-turned day care worker 1, is trying to raise P12,000, the cost of her fourth chemotherapy against cancer on May 5 at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center.

Emilia Anayasan, a 51-year old seamstress at San Carlos Heights, is into her 21st year struggle to have her son’s congenital heart defect mended through surgery. Crisly, her boy, should turn 22 by next Christmas.

“Dyak ammon ti pangalaak (I don’t know where and how to raise the amount),” Tallongen texted last Friday. She explained her fellow barangay health workers and the city nutrition staff mounted a concert and other fund drives to pay for the first two treatments while the third session was covered by the medical assistance fund of Rep. Bernardo Vergara.

A native of Sadanga, Tallongen grew up and studied here in Baguio. She had had  swept Baguio’s streets for 10 years and is now on her 11th year as day care worker at the Campo Filipino District

Her gross monthly pay, as shown by her pay slip issued by the city accounting office, is pegged at P13,312. Her monthly regular deductions (withheld tax, GSIS, Phlhealth, Pag-ibig ) amounts to P11,477.56, of which P8,938.37go to payments for loans (GSIS consolidated, Ecard, DBP, Postal and Landbank), mostly triggered by her illness.

She ends up with a monthly net pay of P3,834.44 for her family’s needs, including monthly rental for the one-room home they live in at 233 Holy Ghost Extension.  

Her husband is out of work while two of their three children living with them help by earning P2,000 each monthly as volunteer garbage collectors.

Social welfare officer Jeterda Junio who prepared the social case study report said Tallongen needs P12,000 for her chemo session next Sunday, a week before  Mother’s Day.

Tallongen was diagnosed for Hodgkin’s lymphoma  (cancer of the lymph nodes) in June last year, after she noticed  a swelling on the left side of her neck. She underwent surgery for the removal of the mass, only to notice its regrowth.

Last Tuesday evening, Anayasan and her son rode the bus for the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City, the nth time that they did so as Crisly is a charity patient for years now. The boy was due for two-dimensional echo cardiography this Saturday.

Shoshin Kinderhilfe, a small foundation set up in southern Germany by former world traditional karate champion Julian Chees, provided the round trip bus fare while Vic Sapguian, a Cordilleran based in Quezon City, offered food and quarters for the duration of the mother and child’s stay in the big city.

Crisly was born with a heart anomaly doctors term as ventricular septal defect, perimembranous type. His lips and fingernails turn bluish, like he  had just helped himself to a bowl of mulberries. Altrhough over-aged by then, he finished sixth grade at the Quezon Elementary School.

“I hope the Heart Center can finally set his surgery as he has suffered for so long,” Emilia wished.

Those who wish to help may ring up Tallongen’s cellphone number (09295390281). They can course their support through her DBP savings account number 0510-449536-531 that she opened when she applied for a loan to boost her chances against the big C.

For Crisly’s fight, Samaritans can call up his mother (cellphone number 09197421723).

Reaching out to the two mothers and namesakes will provide substance to the observance of Mother’s Day. (e-mail:mondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments.)