12/09/2026
“ Nanay Carol “
Goodbye to the One of the toughest and kindest mother in law, neighbor, auntie, friend, kagawad and Mother in San Andres Bukid. We will miss you!
I don’t know how to make a simple announcement about Nanay Carol’s passing, because her story was never simple.
For my children, she was Mami Carol.
For me, she was Nanay Carol.
For her neighbors she was Kagawad.
For her relatives she was Auntie Carol.
But for many people in our community, she was simply the woman who always seemed to have food ready for someone.
THE NANAY CAROL WE KNEW
From around 2009 until 2026, Nanay Carol became a big part of True Manila.
She had a very small carinderia, and sometimes she knew she wouldn’t be able to sell everything she cooked. So instead of letting food go to waste, she would add a little more and give it to students who came by hungry.
She knew it wouldn’t make her rich.
It probably wouldn’t change their lives either.
But if she could feed a hungry child with food she already had, why not?
That simple kindness became part of her life for many years.
She is selling food just to survive everyday so she can pay her bills. Then borrow from Bumbay 5/6 and use that money to sell cooked food and before she even finish paying the loan, she would need to loan again to pay the old loan and sell food again.
She would prepare champorado, eggs, pansit, and other food for students before or after school. And whenever we had a True Manila feeding, she would help prepare food for 200 to 300 kids.
But Nanay Carol wasn’t only about feeding people.
She was a happy mother who loved talking, laughing, and meeting my foreign friends. She would welcome them, cook food for them and even teach them how to cook filipino food. Our favorite, Chicken & Pork Adobo!
Whenever I called and said, “Nanay, we’re coming to visit,” she would immediately start cooking.
Chicken Pork Adobo.
Sinigang.
Tortang talong.
Fried Chicken.
And somehow, she would still add fruits specially when it’s really hot and matched it with a Melon Juice.
She loved speaking English with my foreign friends and welcoming them like family. Sometimes i would leave my friends with her and she would talk to them for an hour and she always love to talk in english with an accent like a call center agent 🙂
Back in the early years of True Manila, when only a few travelers and backpackers would visit, Nanay Carol would cook for everyone.
Eventually, so many foreigners were joining us that we were already blocking the street, so we started going to the mall for the final part of the experience.
We would cool down, eat at the food court, and then come back in the evening.
Because dinner meant one thing:
Nanay Carol’s pork and chicken adobo.
Sadly, nobody will cook that adobo for us anymore.
2022 — HER HOME
In 2022, when I returned to the Philippines, I saw how badly her house had deteriorated.
Termites had damaged the second floor, and whenever it rained, the first floor would flood.
Nanay was living with two of her daughters, one who was deaf and another who had epilepsy. Her youngest daughter had already moved out because her company provided cheap rent housing near theur office.
I felt that our family owed them something because they had allowed us to live in that house for 10 years when my wife and i got married.
So with the help of an old 83yo. friend from Australia and a loan, I tried to repair what I could.
We raised the floor to deal with the flooding and eventually removed the termite-damaged second floor. I did not managed to finish the whole house. But the most important of all is there are no more floods.
It wasn’t perfect, but at least we were able to make the house safer for them.
2023 — ANOTHER LOSS
Then in 2023, Nanay lost her eldest daughter after complications involving epilepsy and a heart attack.
Her other daughters came back home.
There were already many challenges inside the family, including their own health problems and the difficulty of getting regular medicines.
But Nanay continued being Nanay.
She kept moving.
She kept selling food.
She kept hoping.
2024 — TRYING SOMETHING DIFFERENT
In 2024, I decided to leave the Philippines with my son and daughter. We have no concrete plans, even getting the visa was a surprise for us!
We were hoping to find legal work in Europe, earn better, save money, and be in a position where we could help our families back home specially My Mother and Nanay Carol. But we run out of time before we can even find the opportunity that we are looking for, so we came back to start all over again. It was a very tough situation, we decided to comeback home.
I often thought that if we had been able to stay abroad and work, maybe we could have helped with medical checkups earlier without constantly worrying about hospital costs.
Because when you don’t have savings, even going to the hospital can become a difficult decision.
You don’t only think about the illness.
You think about the bill.
We eventually came back to the Philippines, and I started looking for another way to make things work.
Within weeks, I found work again in TV, movies, and commercials. I decided to save a little money for a new plan for my mother and nanay carol.
BORACAY
In March 2025, I invited Nanay Carol and my own mother to spend time with our family.
Both of them were already dealing with health problems. Do i thought maybe if they relocate, it can help ease the problem and lessen the stress in their life.
I wanted to convince them to live with us for a while, maybe six months or a year, somewhere simpler.
So we took them to Boracay.
We took the cheapest way and traveled by bus to Batangas, took the big boat to Caticlan, and then another small boat to the island.
For one week, I tried to convince them that maybe they could live there with us.
I imagined a simple life—walking by the beach, helping with tours, selling shirts, spending time with the family and put up a small table and start selling cook food there to tourists. Simple plan.
Maybe it could be a fresh start.
But they both did not want to relocate. So we brought them back to Manila.
September to December 2026 — WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED
Both parents started to get more sick. In and out of the hospital the entire 2025
Then came the hardest part. 2026
For around four months, our family spent our days going from hospital to hospital.
We were looking for medical assistance, filling out papers, lining up, asking different agencies and organizations for help, and trying to find a way to get her the treatment she needed.
When we finally discovered the tumor, we were still hoping.
I tried to stay positive whenever I was with her.
I prepared things like soursop and moringa tea for her simply as something comforting to drink, and we kept talking about hope.
When I was around, she would try to fight.
When I wasn’t there, she sometimes became scared and hopeless.
My wife and her sisters continued trying to keep her spirits up.
My son and nephew stayed with her. Helping her comforting her and assisting her and going to the mall once a week.
My daughter would bring her food in the morning.
And my little four-year-old daughter could still make her smile just by calling me an “old man.”
We tried to keep life around her as normal as possible.
Sometimes I would take Nanay on an early morning e-bike ride.
We would look around the city, enjoy the morning, and sometimes pick up seeds along the way to plant.
Small things.
But those small things mattered.
Then, only days after her CT scan, we learned the truth.
Stage 4 cancer of the pancreas and liver.
From there, she became weaker. Slowly her hopes disappear.
And we became even more determined to give her whatever time and comfort we could.
HER LAST CHAPTER
We tried everything we could think of.
We asked for help.
We raised funds.
We contacted people.
We went through hospitals and assistance programs.
We kept hoping that somehow another door would open.
But early this morning, around 4–5 AM, Nanay Carol passed away.
After everything, we lost her.
But when I think about her life, I don’t want to remember only the cancer.
I want to remember the woman who cooked extra food because a student was hungry.
The mother who kept laughing even when life wasn’t easy.
The woman who loved talking to my foreign friends in English with an accent.
The Nanay who welcomed everyone into her home.
The woman who could somehow turn a simple meal into a gathering of family and friends.
And the woman whose chicken and pork adobo became one of those memories we didn’t realize we would someday miss so much.
Nanay Carol didn’t become rich by helping people.
She didn’t change the whole world.
She simply helped where she could.
And maybe that’s enough.
Because sometimes kindness isn’t about doing something huge.
Sometimes it’s just cooking a little extra, sharing what you have, opening your door, and making someone feel welcome.
That was Nanay Carol.
And that is how I want us to remember her.
Not only for how she died,
but for how she lived.
Rest peacefully, Nanay Carol.
Thank you for feeding us, welcoming us, making us laugh, and giving so much of yourself to the people around you.
We will miss you.
And yes…
we will definitely miss that pork & chicken adobo. ❤️🙏
