Faustina C. Delos Santos

My mother, Faustina Delos Santos was born and raised in the Philippines on 15 February 1932. She was the 6th of the 10th children of her parents Alberto Crisostomo and Placida Tala. She had nine siblings named Maria, Theodora, Marcelo, Doroteo, Moises, Gabriel, Pilar, Eladia and Leonardo. She married Conrado Delos Santos in October 18, 1956 until his death on December 4, 2003. She was happily married for 47 years. They had seven children named Zenaida, Nelson, Carlito, Elenita, Joel, Ronaldo and Analyn. She was a grandmother to fifteen grandchildren.

Mom attended a vocational school of Dressmaking in the Philippines, she loved it and she later used her dressmaking profession as a part time job.

She also became a business owner of Sari-Sari store in the Philippines for six years but she later gave it up to be migrated to the United States.

Mom resided in San Diego for 24 years. She along with my Dad and my younger sister Analyn migrated to the United States in 1991 through a special Immigration Program because of my father’s employment with the United States Naval Base in Subic Bay, Philippines.

Mom was a loving mother, caring grandmother and a devoted wife, always willing to make sacrifices for her family. In spite of the large number of her children, she was never tired of taking care of us and my father. She had always shown fairness in treating her children. An excellent homemaker, she loves to cook and loves gardening. She was never idle, if she is not busy with the house chores, she does her hobby as a dressmaker. Mom was loved by her relatives, friends and even her neighbors because of her good heart. She was a caring person and she made people around her feel like they were part of the family, the reason why everyone called her “MOM”.

Mom was a very simple and ordinary person who seemed happy with her simple life, I never heard her complain even if we knew that life was hard at that time. Mom used to say not only to her children but to her grandchildren “Makakaraos din tayo” in English “We will overcome”.

In the last three months of my mother’s life, we saw her resilience and her strong will to live for her family. She may have shown her physical weakness at the end, but her courage reverberates with a quaint smile when asked “how she was doing”. Mom was truly a fighter to her last breath!

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