My mother said she also used to watch a similar TV program when she was young, called The Twilight Zone. She recalled to me one particular episode that I came to like also simply because of the manner she told it.

There was a man who was a computer programmer. He needed to work overtime. Something weird happened on the computer. A toy balloon appeared, then a young girl, then a young, attractive woman. The young woman spoke to him until they became friends. There was no Internet yet at that time, no interactive Web sites. But there was this beautiful feminine image moving, and talking. The woman majored in Literature ("At the Ateneo…?," I asked my Mom in jest. "No, at the Cornell," my Mom replied seriously.), was married, and died so many years ago. She was coming back because she needed to finish something. The programmer and she fell in love. At the end, she gave birth to a baby girl, and then she had to go. The image of the new born baby slowly faded away, and the programmer came back to the real world with bloodshot eyes and sweat dripping down his forehead inside the cold computer lab. He went home to his waiting wife.

What was the message of the story? My Mom said you need not always look for messages right away. Take time to enjoy the story. But of course, the teacher will always ask for the message, and so I had to be ready. My Mom said, all of us need to be creative and productive in this life so that when we die, our lives would not have been in vain. We have to do what we can do here and now, so our souls would be at peace when we die.