MANILA, Philippines - Mark Ian Leones was born at 12:02 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2014, the first baby born at Dr. Jose Fabella Hospital in Manila in the New Year.
His mother, 20-year-old Rossalyn Patawarin, smiled as she breastfed her baby, although she was still in pain.
Her partner Seviliano Leones had gone home to change clothes.
When she was pregnant, Patawarin ate plenty of round-shape fruits – apples, grapes, pear, oranges, and santol – while selling plastic bags under the Light Railway Transit station in Baclaran, Parañaque.
Filipinos associate pregnancy and round fruits with luck. Having pregnant women around is said to be good luck for business, while round shaped fruits are good luck for the New Year.
Patawarin did not think that she was just lucky when she gave birth on New Year’s Day.
“He’s a blessing, a blessing to us,†she said in Filipino.
All her life, Patawarin never knew what luck meant. She only knew hard work and a tough life.
Patawarin would like to define luck as “yung nagawa ko yung gusto ko (I could do what I wanted).â€
A high school graduate, she wanted to take up education.
“If I were able to do what I wanted to do, I would not be here,†she said in Filipino.