I will never forget that day. The day we returned to the Philippines full of joy… only to be confronted with a truth that nearly destroyed our family.

We thought our mother had become a millionaire.
We believed she was living comfortably because of the money we had been sending from overseas.

But when we arrived at the place where she was staying…

a fragile shanty stood before us.

And inside it—

our own mother was almost a corpse from hunger.

My name is Rafa.
I am thirty-five years old.

An engineer who had been working in Dubai for nearly five years.

With me were my sister Mela and our youngest brother, Miggy.

The three of us returned to the Philippines without telling our mother.

We wanted to surprise her.

For many years, we had been sending money almost every single month.