So, I watched this latest and greatest movie "Caregiver" of Sharon Cuneta last night and I wasn’t expecting very much from it because I thought I’ve seen every forsaken and battered Filipino domestic-helper-abroad kind of movie flick….. I thought, what else could be new in this one? Until I caught myself wiping my damn tears at the first part of the movie... then I said, "So, this is what's new, pussy cat!" Kleenex please.
I don't know why I easily get carried away by these kinds of Filipino drama... Although this is quite far from my own story here in the US, I know I always try to seek something personal that I can relate to in any OFW theme movies.
Few scenes I want to mention that moved me personally:
1. The scene when Sarah (Sharon's character) spent her last days with her old grandmother. I remember I spent time with my Lola Salud before I left to the US. She passed away a year or so later and sadly, I was not there in her funeral.
2. The scene where she was buying her jacket with her son. I was with my mom when I bought my winter jacket in the same ukay-ukay market.
3. When her husband welcomed her at the airport. My husband (my fiance then) also picked me up from the airport and I remember we were promising to help each other fulfill all our dreams together here in the US.
4. The scene in the laundromat and the scene where she was walking in the snowstorm. Do I need to say more?
The story of Caregiver is very factual and convincing in my own experience and point of view. And really, you don't have to be a Caregiver in London to go through this cinematic experience. It is happening to almost everyone (no matter what your job is), and everywhere abroad, even in front of my own eyes, through the colorful lives of my closest friends and some relatives ...
For example: Good mother left child behind, good wife married to a jerk, good wife fed up and left jerk, good mom takes child, good mom leaves child to babysitters so good mom can work, child turned into problem child as good mom is always working, good mom depressed and looks for second chance in love to solve her problems, good wife marries another jerk.... and the same story goes on around again. Happy?
Or let's go the complicated story, good husband left wife for abroad to provide better life to his family back home, good husband works hard abroad, good husband gets lonely, another girl gets lonely, good husband abroad lives in with lonely girl who also left good husband back home to take care of family, who also wants to provide better life for her family.... sounds familiar?
That's the sad reality of life most Filipino abroad has to go through to earn this damn dollar or pounds, or whatever. And that's the quality of life that most families have to have, as chosen by their good parents only wanting to provide better life and future for their children. That's the kind of sacrifice that inevitably most Filipinos unconsciously fantasize when they think that the Philippines is hopeless, and that they need to work or live abroad, and leave their loved ones behind.
Lastly, may I say, I have a lot of respect to all these OFWs around the world and their own heroism to their families, especially the ones in the nursing and caregiving jobs. Here's the best lines in the movie that I believe have made impact to their chosen profession:
"Some time, when you least expect it, someone will come into your life and make you feel less lonely, less alone... For me you are that person. You care for people. You give them what they've lost to life down the years, their dignity, and hope and joy and even fun... There's not very many jobs that can top that!"
My own start-up story may not be as dramatic and worthy of a movie, but I've written a blog about it before. Click here to read my Promdi In America, Lost in Transition.
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