Lea assumed so many roles in life that no ordinary mother can handle. It was so hard to juggle all her priorities almost to the extent that all shall fall one by one, yet she still managed to maintain balance, step up and make all things well in the end. Normally a person would think the roles of an ordinary mother would just be the simple house chores: cooking, cleaning, laundry and clothes-pressing, and of course taking care of the children; but these but so few compared to Lea's responsibilities, though most mothers would give up their positions doing just these. Lea, with all her strength, was even able to pitch in much more things in her already hectic life: her dangerous and hectic job, an attention-deprived spouse and his overly-frustrated mother, another spouse trying to take her son away from her, job travels here and there, meetings for the PTA, satisfying her bodily needs, and but many more. Most mothers would die trying to do what already seems normal to her, yet she stood up and fought it out, almost never getting exhausted. As Lualhati Bautista has said, "...mere undertaking of responsibilities does not make a hero out of you; it just makes you a responsible person and no more," and yet what Lea was doing was definitely not only hers but a father's as well. She expanded her limits and accomodated more than one could possibly have handled; this does not make her just an ordinary mother: this makes her truly an extraordinary mom; a hero in their own terms. 

Although a hero that she is, Lea committed her own faults as well, though they may be caused by the situations she was in. Say for instance her affair with Johnny. If that were to push through, then she would have surely lost all that she had worked for, all that she was willing to die for just to let them stay--her chilren. Yet all people are imperfect, and imperfection rises from depressing circumstances; Raffy's separated from her and was certainly away, Ding was in his mother's, not by her side for so many nights: this would indeed be so depressing for her. Toppled over with the children's accident, she felt as if the world tumbled over her shoulders. Yet with faith and persistence to live and go on, Lea found herself having both children with her in the end, and that was what she was working for--what she was hoping for.

Ojie

Stepping into yet another stage in his life, Ojie becomes an adolescent: just another notch higher and he would be an adult. We have all been through, if not in, this stage: the start of consciousness, constant curiousity, confusion and independence. It was the time when Ojie stars to wonder about things: how come they have only one dad when I have two, why am I not with my real dad, why are my parents not together under the same roof...I want to go to my dad, I want to see my real dad. These are but some questions and statements that filled his mind every single day, clogging out other important things as well: schooling, Lea's orders, and even Lea herself. At a certain point, Ojie didn't even bother to think of Lea: he didn't care if she would be worried or not about his going home late at night, sometimes not even going home for several days. He was really a good and understanding child; being a conscious adolescent that he is, he just misunderstood what he sees, hears, thinks and feels during this time. He was so much affected by his environment that he wouldn't know what to do, what is good or bad for him and for Lea. But afterwards, the only thing that retained in his mind was what his father wanted to do: take him to the States with his new wife. This was the biggest thought that clouded Ojie's mind. He acted strange, therefore, not of his own doing but because of his love for his dad; his longing to see him and to live with him, the feeling of again having someone you have lost a long time ago. Sometimes feelings really precedes the mind: this was exactly the case for Ojie.

Ojie, though, should be commended for his effort: effort to think this thing through really hard and come up with a real answer that would really benefit him. An adolescent like Ojie is prone to his feelings, affecting him most of the time that he could not think and act clearly. The fact that he could make a decision to stay with his mom--the one who would be able to give him the best care, in our humble opinion--despite conflict within his emotions truly took great effort, considering he was just a kid and his mind was only starting to mature. 

Maya

All little kids are outspoken. They do not lie and they like to share what's in their subtle minds. Maya, however, is a little too outspoken for her own self. She does not care if she shares with others that her parents are not married to each other, and takes no shame if others tease her for such. It is partly for the fact that she is young and cannot fully understand things like this, but the main cause for this attribute of hers is her mom. Lea is tactless, thinking that it would be best for the children to know the truth at an early age rather than take shame upon it when they reach maturity at a greater age. For this reason, she looks a lot smarter than most kids of her age. Sometimes she even says things that no seven-year-old can be imagined to say, to the point where we would even think that her character is unrealistic. Yet her type really exists: the type who, aside from being innately intelligent, is able to talk all her imaginations out with other people. All of us could more or less remember all our imaginations when we were children, but most of us kept this within ourselves thinking that they were just silly things; Maya did not keep them, and later we find out that they were not silly things after all.