The Filipina Heart
Marie (not her real name) only knew bitterness and heartache after two failed marriages. Now 50 years old, her eyes glimmer with hope as her fiancee’s trip to the Philippines nears. I felt her excitement as I asked “How did you meet him?” and Marie replied “Filipinaheart.com”. She added “My friend is lucky she found a loving husband in the midwest. For years, she knew nothing but verbal and physical abuse from her husband-addict . She introduced me to the FilipinaHeart.com site”. I never expected Marie to resort to a dating site to find another love, a third chance to find a man for keeps. Oh yes, I understood her loneliness. “You know, even if we are 50 years old, we are still attractive to men”, she teased me. Of course I wouldn’t know that since I have dated no other man in my life other than my husband for 29 years now. If I were in her shoes, I’d date all over again though. Her eyes lit up as she shared her webcam conversations with her fiancee. It felt like high school all over again as we continued on with our girl talk. Marie is just one of the many faces of the Filipina. She is is an upper middle-class, educated, pretty and kind person. I’ve never met anyone who used a dating site so her experience really piqued my curiousity. I asked tons of questions and her answers? Well, I ‘d rather keep them to myself.
What I realized now is those photos in the Filipina dating websites are just photos. We don’t know the story of their lives. The image of a Filipina is not merely a photo as she can be your friend who’s there for you, no matter what, your sister, mom or the broken-hearted woman.