Soon she got another big break, the fulfillment of one of her dreams. She went abroad - unaccompanied. Dad volunteered to go with her, but she said people become too dependent on others and helpless because they allow themselves to be so. For a month in 1992, Mom toured the Japanese cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Shizuoka and Nagoya all by herself. The trip not only provided her with new insights and added self-confidence, but also earned her scores of Japanese friends, most of them disabled, who to this day write to her regularly.
Mom is a woman who never runs out of surprises.
According to Dad, his family objected to their marriage at first because they thought he would have to take care of a disabled wife the rest of his life. But love-struck as he was, Dad took the plunge. Their years of wedded bliss proved that he made the right decision when he married Mom. Dad's relatives realized that beyond Mom's weak pair of legs was a woman of substance, of strong character. Mom organized the first ever Association of disabled persons in Cagayan Stories have been told of how amazed people were to see Mom continue doing her work routine of going around gathering material for her news stories, even when she was already several months heavy with her only child.