At that time, Mrs. Maria Santos was just over thirty years old. She lived alone in an old teachers’ dormitory inside a public school on the outskirts of a provincial town in the Philippines. A teacher’s salary was meager, her meals simple and modest, but her heart had never known a lack of love.
One afternoon, as torrential rain poured down relentlessly, on the steps of the village’s rural health center, Mrs. Maria saw two twin boys huddled under a thin cloth, crying themselves hoarse. Beside them lay only a crumpled note that read:
“Please, someone raise them. I no longer have the means…”
Mrs. Maria lifted both children in her arms, feeling her heart clench. From that moment on, her life took a completely different turn.
She named them Miguel and Daniel . In the mornings she went to teach; at midday she rushed home to cook a large pot of rice congee; in the afternoons she took the two boys to a busy intersection to sell lottery tickets. On nights when the power went out, the three of them studied together under the dim light of an oil lamp.
Miguel had a special talent for mathematics, while Daniel loved physics and often asked him:
—Ma’am, why can airplanes fly?
Mrs. Maria smiled, gently stroked his head, and replied:
—Because dreams give them momentum.
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