My stepfather had no pension. I cared for him with all my heart for twelve years. With his last breath, he handed me a torn pillow and whispered, « For Maria. » When I opened it, I burst into tears I couldn’t stop…

My stepfather had no pension. I cared for him with all my heart for twelve years. With his last breath, he handed me a torn pillow and whispered, « For Maria. » When I opened it, I wept uncontrollably…

My name is Maria. I became a daughter-in-law at 26. By then, my husband’s family had already been through a lot. My mother-in-law had died young, leaving my father-in-law, Tatay Ramón, to raise four children alone. He had grown rice and vegetables all his life in Nueva Ecija, without a stable job or pension.

By the time I married his son, almost all of Tatay Ramón’s children had already started their own families and rarely visited him. The rest of his life depended almost entirely on my husband and me.

I often heard the neighbors whispering:

« What? She’s just a stepdaughter, and she looks like his servant. Who would take care of a stepfather for so long? »

But I thought differently. He was a father who had sacrificed his whole life for his children. If I turned my back on him, who would take care of him?

# Twelve years of hardship

Those twelve years were not easy. I was young, often tired, and alone. When my husband worked in Manila, I stayed home alone to take care of our little girl and Tatay Ramón, who was already weak. I cooked, I did the laundry, and I stayed up late at night to monitor his breathing.

One day, exhausted, I told him:

« Father, I’m just your daughter-in-law… sometimes I feel like I have an immense weight on my chest. »

He simply smiled at me gently and, with trembling hands, took mine:
« I know, my daughter. That’s why I’m even more grateful. Without you, I might not be here anymore. »

I will never forget those words. From then on, I promised myself I would do everything I could to make his life more bearable. Every winter, I bought him a thick coat and a blanket. When he had a stomachache, I made him rice soup. When his feet hurt, I gently massaged them.

I never expected him to leave me anything one day. I did it because I considered him my own father.

# The final moment