I send my mother 1.5 million pesos monthly for my postpartum wife. Coming home early, I found my wife eating spoiled rice with fish heads. Furious, I confronted my mom, who sneered, “She doesn’t deserve better.” Then, I checked the family safe and found…

back out into the sweltering heat, my arms laden with premium sustenance, feeling a profound, almost absurd swell of happiness. It was a mundane errand, yet it felt as though I was physically carrying pieces of my fractured family back together.

The asphalt of our neighborhood seemed to boil under the punishing afternoon sun as I rounded the corner.continue reading …