Alma was a teller at a bank on Plaza Cervantes. One morning, she saw Rowena outside the bank entrance, a barefoot beggar sleeping while holding her two-month-old baby girl. The baby was about to fall from her grip, but Alma reached down in time to catch her. This jolted the mother who smiled at Alma. Both Rowena and her baby were malnourished. The baby’s bloated belly showed her advanced stage of malnutrition. Alma, in tears, gave Rowena ten pesos.
Alma could not sleep at night. Every morning, she would see Rowena at the entrance to the bank and give her ten pesos. This went on for about a month.
It was the Christmas season. Alma received her 13th-month pay, and she wanted to give Rowena a hundred pesos instead of the usual ten as a Christmas present. She computed that the hundred pesos was a measly 0.3 percent of her 13th-month pay, not even 1 percent. So, she gave her one thousand pesos or 3 percent. Rowena’s eyes almost popped out.
ROWENA (in tears): You are a very kind lady.
Jennifer, a nutritionist who had her own modest pharmacy two blocks away, went to the bank every morning to deposit the previous day’s income. When she saw Alma give Rowena a thousand pesos, her eyes also almost popped out.
ALMA: You have to feed your baby some milk every day.
JENNIFER: Yes, that’s right. And if you don’t, your baby can die.
ROWENA: Really, that bad? Why am I surrounded by kind people?
ALMA: Because the Lord loves you. Pray to him to get you out of your problem.
ROWENA (holding up her rosary): I pray every night for help, but it seems the Lord is too busy to help a beggar. I am beginning to lose my faith. Yesterday, I did not pray the rosary.
ALMA: No, that’s wrong. Keep on praying. Don’t lose your faith.
JENNIFER: Yes, that’s the only thing you’ve got.
ROWENA: Okay, I will keep on praying the rosary.
ALMA: Where do you stay?
ROWENA: I stay on a ledge near Jones Bridge. If it rains hard, I go to the street tunnel under the bridge and stand up on the narrow curb until the rain stops. I have no space to sit or lie down.
Every Monday, Jennifer would give Rowena a huge can of enriched milk. After three weeks, on the day before Christmas, Rowena vanished. Alma and Jennifer were worried. They looked for her around the Jones Bridge area, but she was gone. The day after Christmas, they saw her back at her spot at the bank entrance. She was all smiles. She and her baby were in the pink of health. The enriched milk did the trick.
ROWENA: If not for the two of you, my baby would have died, and I would have committed suicide. I live only for my baby. Please help me find a job.
ALMA (at the bank): Boss Alfred, I have a big favor to ask.
ALFRED: You want me to hire Rowena, right?
ALMA (shocked): How did you know?
ALFRED: Jennifer, my niece, told me everything, the weekly milk rations, the rosary, your thousand-peso aid. I was so touched by your kindness that I have decided to hire Rowena as a janitress.
ALMA: Wow. Thank you, sir.
Rowena enters the bank barefoot with her baby. There is a deadly silence. All eyes are on her. Alma and Alfred quickly escort her to a conference room.
ROWENA (handing her baby to Alma so she can hug Alfred as she weeps): Alma, you were right. Never lose faith because the Lord loves us.
ALMA: I will buy you some clothes. Continue the milk for the baby. Jennifer promised weekly rations for a whole year.
ALFRED (giving Alma some money): Here, add this to your shopping money for her clothes. Rowena, I have ordered security to give you a small space in the stock room.
JENNIFER (barging in): No need, Tito Alfred. She stays with me.
ROWENA: Here you are (she hands rosaries to Alma, Alfred, and Jennifer). Mama Mary saved me, and she will also save you someday as long as you pray the rosary.
When Alma got breast cancer, she placed the rosary Rowena had given her on her chest. True enough, she was healed.
Alfred missed his plane to Cebu City. The plane crashed, no survivors. Mama Mary was at work again.
Jennifer’s modest drugstore expanded to four branches. Rowena became a bank teller and her daughter graduated cum laude. What more could they ask for?
The love we give is contagious and multiplies a hundredfold until it fills the Earth. Love healed Rowena and Alma. Love saved Alfred and enriched the enriched-milk donor. It is the domino principle.
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