‘I just want peace of mind; I’m also human’

By Alex P. Vidal

“Ask not what your OFW relative can do for you; ask what you can do for yourself.”

—Anonymous

THIRTY-six-year-old Cindy (not her real name) decided to deactivate her social media accounts (both Meta and Instagram) hours after receiving a cryptic private message from “Sampaguita” on December 18 while working the night shift at a Presbyterian medical center in New York on December 18.

She suspected Sampaguita to be her older half sister, forty-year-old Dolores (not her real name), using a fictitious Meta (formerly Facebook) account to harass her.

Cindy is an LPN (licensed practical nurse) from Mambusao, Capiz in the Philippines who transferred from Cleveland, Ohio to New York after the pandemic in February 2023.

She has been helping financially the other family of her late mother, Teresita (not her real name), who had four children in her first marriage, in the coastal village of Punta Tabuc in Roxas City, Capiz.

Cindy is Teresita’s only daughter with a Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) executive in Capiz who died in a vehicular mishap in Ternate, Cavite in 2011.

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Dolores or “Sampaguita”, a single unmarried mother and storekeeper, is one of the three children of Teresita, who died of breast cancer while working as a seamster in Mandaluyong City in 2014.

Teresita’s first husband, Dolores’ father, is a former town councilor in Jamindan, Capiz, who now works in Dubai and has a new family.

Since Teresita’s death, then 25-year-old Cindy has been helping supply the household needs and otherwise of her half brother Richard (not his real name), now 38; Dolores, 40; and another half sister, Jennilyn (not her real name), now 42. They are all unmarried.

Cindy said Dolores, Richard, a pedicab driver, and Jennilyn, a crew of a popular fast-food chain, treated her as real sister; they had good relationships and supported each other in one way or the other in the absence of their parents.

Everything turned sour, Cindy said, starting when she decided to cut the remittances she regularly sent to the household of Dolores, Richard, and Jennilyn.

It developed from bad to worse when Cindy stopped sending them money starting January 2025.

“I realized I’m not getting younger anymore,” Cindy quipped. “I need to also save for my own future. My two (half) sisters and brother are grown ups; I believe they can stand on their own and they can’t rely on me forever.”

She dreamt to have her own family and wanted to compensate herself by starting to save “hard-earned” money.

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Cindy said she had to quit in the hospital where she worked for two years in North Shore Collinwood, Cleveland’s east side, in 2021 because of coronavirus pandemic.

“Sometimes, our relatives and friends in the Philippines should also think of our situation while working abroad, not just their situations. Much as I would like to sustain their needs, but I need to also survive because I’m alone,” sobbed Cindy, who has remained single at 36.

The “bullying” and “harassment” from Dolores a.k.a “Sampaguita” came in the form of bizarre private messages “in the dead of the night” that sometimes bordered on threats and intimidation, Cindy alleged.

“Yudi__ta ka kalagon ka gd ni mamang. Wla ka consensia selfish ka maturong gid mata mo (you sonnobabitch mom’s ghost will haunt and punish you. You’re selfish and without any conscience; you’ll be cursed until your eyes will be widely shut),” read one of the many messages Cindy allegedly received from “Sampaguita” or Dolores.

By deactivating all her social media accounts was one way for anyone not finding out what she was doing, where she was, and everything about her would remain private.

“I want to have peace of mind and live my own life,” Cindy explained. “I’m also human.”

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LISTENING TO LEAVES. Western Washington University geophysicists are making localized air-pollution maps by tracking the magnetism of three leaves. Car and some industrial pollution contain particles of magnetic iron oxide that stick to the leaves, making them magnetic.

WIRELESS EYES. A team of MIT researchers has entered the race to develop an implant that can restore partial vision to the blind. Unlike other implants under development, MIT’s system does not place electrodes directly on the retina, which can damage the eye during implantation. Instead, the device stimulates nerves near the eyeball that carry visual information to the brain.

RADAR TECHNOLOGY. Conventional radar ranges are increasing, and that’s just the start of the problem. Over-the-horizon radar can detect airplanes by bouncing signals off the ionosphere, 56 miles above Earth, while passive radar can provide enemies with rough tracks of an airplane’s location, direction and altitude.

SELF CONTROL (presence of mind while doing it) is strength. Right thinking is mastery. Correct priority is wisdom. Calmness is power. What a gift! May God continue to grant us all these in 2026.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor in chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)