Single Mom’s Gift of Chance

My name is Ella Patiño. I am 13 years old and residing in Manila, Philippines. I made this gofundme campaign specially for my mom. When I was 1 year old, my Dad lost to a lung cancer. He was not an alcoholic or a smoker at all, in fact my Dad lived a very healthy life, no vices at all. But his environment at work and the people he met we're much of an alcoholics and very much into smoking. So my Dad developed that illness he had from a secondhand activities. After my Dad's death, my mom never remarried. She has her life just for me and my brother from then on. My Mom used to have a small catering company that lasted for about 3 years ( 2008-2011 ). The business was able to help her raised us from scratch. She was able to provide us a small home, was able to send us to a normal school, and was able to make our childhood years happy. The catering company went bankrupt after someone badmouthed my Mom's business operations. The person who ruined my Mom's small business was her trusted assistant, who happened to get all the contacts and customers and established her own catering company. So from late 2011 up to early 2013, my Mom worked as a freelance housekeeper to different homes, earning only just a few pesos a day ( Php 150/day ) doing a whole day's house chores from cleaning to cooking, to laundry, and ironing. When Mom gets home every night, she was always exhausted and had always has body aches and bruised hands due to tons of household chores everyday. I was like 7 years old that time but it was very clear to me that my Mom has been in so much suffering. But even so, she would always have a sunny disposition in life. She would always tell me and my brother to be always good kids, to have good attitudes even if we die so poor. My Mom has always been a good woman, a good neighbor, a very kind and sweet person. She is the kind of Mom only me and my brother luckily get to have. She has been our treasure that we would never trade for anything else. Two years ago, my mom was lucky enough to establish her own housekeeping business. Some of her expat customers helped her to start endorsing her good housekeeping skills, and a few months later, Mom got dozens of customers already. So Mom hired 3 single mothers also to help her cater the needs of the customers each day. The housekeeping business was a success for a while for about 2 years. Mom was able to get a small but nice home, a car that she used for her appointments, a savings for our future education. But last year it was a turn of events that made my Mom and our lives very miserable. My brother and I got hospitalized from an infection early 2017, so mom spent so much for the hospital bills. Then later part of 2017, my grandfather was admitted to ICU from brain infarction leading to swelling of the brain stem and after a month in the ICU, my grandpa passed away, leaving my Mom spending too much for the ICU bills as well as the funeral service. After my grandpa's burial, Mom called me and my brother and explained to us our financial situation. It was tough for her. She sold her car and maxed out her savings to be able to pay hospital bills, house bills, and salaries of other housekeepers which already has been 3 months behind. So, came 2018. We have no house anymore, no car, the housekeeping business was falling down already because Mom had trouble purchasing the cleaning materials already and paying for her fellow housekeepers salaries. Mom found a small apartment and rented it, and transferred me and my brother to a government mandated school last June 2018 to save up. Finally, the housekeeping business have closed the operations in September 2018. From then on up to present time, my mom just accepts very laborious jobs, some days she would take housekeeping jobs. I am 13 years old now and my brother is 15. We are both late in our achool years. I'm still in 5th grade and my brother is in 6th grade. I see my mom every middle of the night deeply praying so much asking help from God for patience and strength to face daily hardships. I never heard her pray for someone to come to our lives to help us with financial aid. She prays for our protection, for patience, and strength only. I always see her crying too. That's how kind and nice my mom. And then I thought of making a GoFundMe page for her. My mom has an exceptional skills in housekeeping and culinary. Only if she will be given another chance to build a small business from her fields of expertise, then, maybe my Mom would at least feel that there are still good hearts in this crazy world. My mom is 43 and has been doing things for us. I would like to try to do a thing to make her happy and rest a bit from being so tired. She hardly gets to buy lipstick or a pair of cheap shoes at least, because her earnings are just enough for our food. There were times when I had a fever, and I just tried to keep drinking lots of water and not told my mom about it because she doesn't have money that time so I don't like to make her feel even worse than she has been feeling all these years. I love my mom so much. This is the best I could do. So please help me make this GoFundMe goal of mine to come to reality. My mom needs one shot. She needs a good website for her small housekeeping business, a few cleaning equipments to start again, a few cleaning chemicals as initial stocks, a small budget to go to her business meetings. For the catering part, this could be just a sideline for her though. If she doesn't have housekeeping projects, she could at least take some few orders for her food, like pasta, cakes, pastries, and main dishes to be done at home and deliver to offices. So I wish to buy her a nice cooking stove with oven and a fridge to store initial stocks of food items. I am pretty sure that this will help Mom and us so much. My mom, my brother and I, do not wish or hope to become rich or to have a very comfortable life. We only want to have at least a space of time so my mom would have the chance to breath and have a break from a very struggling life. She deserves a break. She deserves to do what makes her happy. I hope you will help make those things come true for my mom.

Thank you so much.

Ella