Dan and his mom.
IT’S the children’s turn to make their mothers happy especially today — Mother’s Day.
For Cebu-based actor Dan Sy Lopez, he will give a bag and a mocha cake to his mother, Marirose.
It is just a small token, but he knows that this will make her happy since his mom collects bags.
“It’s her collection (bag),” Dan answered when asked why he chose to give a bag for his mother.
Dan has much to be thankful of his mother, who has supported him through most of his life, and who has provided him with an adage that he has adopted in his life — “If others can, why can’t I?”
“Kanang mogamay ako grades or kana ma-depressed ko na dili nako ma-fulfill ang usa ka task. Mo ana sya kung kaya sa uban kaya sad na nimo
(When I got low grades or got depressed because of an unfulfilled task, she would tell me that if others could do it, then so could I),” he said.
He finished Bachelor of Science (BS) in Nursing at Southwestern University (SWU) in 2012 and passed the Nursing Licensure Examination (NLE) the following year.
But Dan did not pursue his nursing career. Instead he pursued a career in the entertainment industry and is now a full-time actor at Cebu Catholic Television (CCTN) working with several television series.
Dan said he had always been thankful to his mother because she has supported him with his decision.
Dan, who is from Banawa in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City, has never forgotten the sacrifice his mother did to the family especially to his brother, speech- and hearing-impaired elder brother, Danmark.
He said that his brother suffered from dengue when he was three months old, which led to complications resulting in his condition.
Marirose, who was then a social worker in a nongovernment organization, gave up her job to take care of her two sons especially his brother.
“Kay di siya gusto na sunod niya anak ma amang kay ako kuya gi-dengue man ato then na-paralize iya ear mao na amang sya (Because he wanted to avoid his other son would suffer the same fate as that of his elder son),” Dan recalled.
It was 12 years later that his mother went back to her career as a social worker.
At present, 54-year-old Marirose works as a Social Worker IV at Cebu Provincial Capitol.
Aside from Dan, Carmeliza Caballero, a business process outsourcing employee, will give a cake and red flowers to her 63-year-old mother, a retired nutritionist, who is in Badian town in southern Cebu.
Carmeliza, who has learned to have a positive attitude regardless of the situation from her mother, said she could not personally celebrate the day with her mother because she would be working, but she would make sure that she could give her something to be happy and to make her feel special for the day.
“Mangita jud me og ways para makahatag kay kahibawo ko nga mag-expect na si mama nga naa me ihatag. Mothers are all special lahi ra jud basta mga mama na (We find ways to give presents to her. Mothers are all special and it’s different when it comes to mothers),”
Carmeliza told Cebu Daily News.