My husband d/i/e/d, and I chose to stay and raise his three brothers to go to school. But when the day came when they were successful, they left the village one by one and disappeared completely.

My husband died, and I chose to stay and raise his three brothers to go to school. But when the day came when they were successful, they left the village one by one and disappeared completely. Everyone in the village was muttering, calling me a “fool”, “I intentionally tied myself to suffering”…

But one day… Something suddenly appeared in front of my house—something that startled the whole village, as if they couldn’t believe their eyes…

Twenty years ago, Maribel Santos‘ life changed forever when her husband died in a construction accident in New York City. Her passing was sudden, leaving Maribel with her husband’s three younger siblings.

At the time, Maribel was only 25 years old—beautiful, hardworking, and working as a seamstress in a small factory in Caloocan.