Press Release
December 24, 2018

Dispatch from Crame No. 440:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Best Christmas Gift--Her Mom's visit

10/24/18

I had an incredible moment yesterday. I got my best Christmas gift.

My Mom, who's clueless about my situation, visited me for the first time. A most surprising and unexpected visit. She came, unannounced, at around 9:00 a.m., or right before our regular 10:00 a.m. Sunday Mass, accompanied by my brother Nonoy and our aunt, Mama Lils.

Having missed each other for almost 2 years, we cried while hugging each other.

It was a conspiracy of sorts among my siblings who decided recently that it's time to come clean and tell our Mom where her eldest daughter is.

They finally told her I'm in Camp Crame. But her state of dementia (she's now 86 years old) failed to grasp the real import of such a revelation. It blocked her from reality, with all its pains. A stroke of Divine Providence.

So much so that when we started bonding, my Mom repeatedly asked, in semi-trance, where we were. She had no idea that this is a detention facility.

My brother and I then realized the futility of full disclosure. It no longer matters to our Mom where I am or what was done to me. All she wanted was to see me, and vice versa. It was an answered prayer for both of us.

God, indeed, has His own ways, different from ours. He throws in His own surprises.

God is great, all the time...

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