The hero of our household

Every day for the past 26 years, Yaya Josie has quietly served and cared for our family with faithful love and compassion. Her integrity and loyalty remains solid through all these years.  Her dedication to us, who she considers her family, is one we are most grateful for.

From her hometown Roxas City in Capiz, Rica Jocelyn Depol Rubio came to us when Benny and I were a newly married couple, still childless and in need of a single, all-around helper. My husband and I were both working 9 p.m. to 7 p.m. jobs. We discovered early on that she is not a talker but more of a doer, her love language is serving.

We transferred homes several times and Yaya Josie never complained about how tedious it was. She tirelessly packed up our wedding gifts of porcelain, glass, silverware and household appliances. She wrapped up oriental furniture, mirrors, paintings and reorganized them in our transient homes. She cooked, cleaned and washed for us daily.

It took me eight and a half difficult years to conceive and she was constantly by my side caring for me and  my husband as well. We went through bumpy emotional roads, through several medical work ups and procedures. She was our caring angel who walked with us daily on this challenging journey.

I finally got pregnant in the US in 1995 after a successful medical procedure. I came home jubilant and my whole family was excited. It was my first trimester. My two dear friends Isabel and Maritess visited me at home and I remember getting up from the sofa to head to the bathroom when they noticed I was gushing blood. They hurriedly called their doctor friend and he advised them to take me to the emergency room of Makati Med. My ever attentive hero, Yaya Josie, ran next door to our neighbor and asked for help. So their big burly guard lifted me up and carried me to the car where Isabel drove quickly to the ER while Yaya Josie cradled my head lovingly in her arms to ease my nervous anxiety. Dr. Lazaro did an ultrasound and we were all relieved to find that the baby was safe. But I was in danger of losing the baby anytime. So the doctor kept me in the hospital for seven weeks.

Yaya Josie cared for me and provided my endless needs in the hospital every day. When I was discharged after seven weeks, I went home to a hospital bed set up in my room with no bathroom privileges. Everything was done in bed. Bedpan, shampoo, sponge bath by Yaya Josie during that delicate semester of my pregnancy was our daily routine. There were times when I would itch so badly and couldn’t take anything in so Yaya Josie would massage me lightly and tenderly with baby powder and lotion all night long till I could drift off to sleep. She cooked food that she felt was good for me. She had a solution to everything I suffered from.

When I finally gave birth through Caesarian section, she was there to help me heal and walk around. She washed my hair, my body and made me malunggay soup. She prepared everything our baby needed. We named him Vincent. She was always so attentive to his needs and ours — helping me to breastfeed and encouraging me to keep at it. She would take the night shift and whenever it was her shift, I slept soundly, but when it was the midwife, I could not.

My late dad Vincent Dayrit noticed her devotion and said Yaya Josie loved that baby. And so she became his nanny.  She was noticeably so proud of her new assignment and worked so lovingly. She massaged his baby legs, to the relief of my late mother Mila Dayrit, so Vincent’s legs are nice and straight today. She stayed up all night when he was awake, and bathed him with tender loving care. She went with him to toddler school when I couldn’t go and attended to his every need. She supported and encouraged him through all his endeavors and took videos of his basketball games.

Now, Vincent is 21 and has grown up feeling loved. He, too, is very grateful to Yaya Josie.

I had a long and treacherous medical history. She nursed me through calcium stones, infertility pains, dengue. And she cared for me when I had endometrial cancer in 2007. In 2012, she cared for me as I battled breast cancer, stage 3b. Through chemotherapy, double mastectomy, radiation and Herceptin infusions, she nursed me back to health, never leaving my side, caring for me as my mother had passed away in 1997. She helped me to recover and continues to care for our son, my husband, too, up to this very day.

She loves cooking and cooks for our frequent prayer meetings, family dinners and heads our household with quiet strength. She goes to Mass in Assumption to be with the Sisters and she loves cooking for them on occasions or no occasions.

She generously supports her family’s needs through working all these years and though her parents have passed, she continues to send money to her family in Capiz. She has also helped us in our advocacies, especially in our mission school in Sorsogon, for the past 14 years. She likes to pack relief goods and helps us sell our goodies to raise funds for underprivileged students. She patiently prepares all our medicines, and now our healthy meals where she tenderly removes the skin from the chicken and skims off all the fat from the meat. She never complains about the tedious methods required to cook healthy. She loves going through the internet to research on healthy meals for us to enjoy. She never draws attention to herself but remains thoughtful and humble. She goes out of her way to find solutions to our every household problem. She even hardly goes on day off by her own choice as she is simply happy to be at home.

It’s been 26 years and she remains single. She remains devoted to our family and keeps happily caring for us. She also cares for my husband’s brood of five lively chihuahuas. She bathes and talks to them like they are her babies.

Our Yaya Josie, who lives a life of dedicated service, daily kindness and compassion, is  the hero of our household. We thank God every day for her presence in our lives.

Recently, Yaya Josie received her 2017 Barangay San Lorenzo Everyday Heroes award. Other awardees included Junieta Panunciales, Maria Fe Muana, Paul Amaguin, Benjamin Segurigan Jr., Lita Magbanua, Editha Goyo, Rosemarie Villas, Corazon Traigo, Eugenia Severino, German Magbanua, Ramona Amador, Antonio Lolong, Emma Estuya, Gina Escano and Gloria Teves.

To us, Yaya Josie is family.

(Would love to hear from you at miladayjewels@yahoo.com.)