The Weight of a Woman

There’s no business like show business. Everything about it is appealing. And of course, nowhere can you get that happy feeling.

This line is from a musical Annie. And it also says that there are no people like show people – those happy, flashy, extravagant, over-the-top people who have seamlessly mastered the art of acting, singing and dancing.

They look so powerful and seem well put together. But if you dig deeper ever so slightly the surface, the glamour perhaps the high profile status is torn down and changed into much more humane and common and totally relatable. You see them on cam and you tell yourself how perfect they are. Like all the puzzle pieces just naturally fall into place. You can just tell by the way they talk and carry themselves. It really is a sight to behold, actually. But behind the spotlight, they turned into wives and mothers who are also scared, broken, scarred and worried by life’s imperfections.

These women are beautiful as well as amazing.

And they both have children with severe autism.

Kris Aquino is a celebrity here in the Philippines. She is at the moment a single parent, who loves his two sons so much, including the special child Joshua. He is diagnosed with autism, learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorder.

In fact, she has already allotted a big trust fund for the two kids specially to her special child. Her brother, Noynoy Aquino the president of the Philippines, even said that he didn't marry because he wants to take care of Joshua.

She delivered the late night news. Broadcast journalist Karen Davila’s firstborn, David, was 3½ years old when he was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PDD/NOS) in the Autism Spectrum, a severe form of autism. The development pediatrician said there was no cure for David’s condition.

These women are remarkable. And it makes me feel like, little by little, those walls of stereotypes and misconceptions are being torn down. You see them all glammed up but sure they’d come home to children who need them, like how my children need me. Who can make them laugh, aren't afraid to be silly with them, who knows just the trick to get them to eat their peas – and other tons of things in this world to raise kids, to watch them grow and learn and thrive.

And speaking of disabilities in case you ask, would we ever trade your children and exchanged them for somebody who are cuter, chubbier, brilliant, more talented individuals. Our answer? Never.