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THE FIRST time he heard her voice among the other women in the room, Rolando “Lando” Guaca, 35, fell in love and told himself she was the one.
Guaca is blind and so is the love of his life, Helen Sebe, 34.
“Si Helen na gyud hangtud sa hangtud. Di na ko mangita ug lain. (It's Helen forever. I will not look for another),” said Guaca.
Even if he is given the gift of sight, he said he will fall in love with her even more. There were six women in the training class for the disabled in barangay Labangon, Cebu City.
But it was Helen who caught his attention.
He wouldn't know how she looks like, but it was how she talked and how she communicated with her classmates that made her different.
The group was learning how to be masseurs so that disabled persons like him would be able to earn a living.
The two have been living together since 2003. They have a one-year-old girl named Angel. Helen brings their daughter to work at a beauty parlor in barangay Tipolo, a few meters from their home in Mandaue City.
Guaca offers massage service to clients at the Mandaue City Hall. He rides a jeepney from Tipolo to the City Hall in barangay Centro.
His wife often accompanies him and they cross the street holding hands.
Lando said that their relationship is a continuous struggle because of their disability and especially now with a year-old daughter.
He remembers how difficult it was when his wife delivered their baby a year ago at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.
He had to ask someone else to buy a diaper for the infant because he couldn’t go out alone to do the errand. They had no one else to guide them at the hospital.
Late last year, a parlor hired Helen, while Guaca still waits for clients at City Hall.
The couple have yet to marry. “Mahal man ang pakasal gud,” said Guaco. (A wedding is expensive.)
He said he wanted his little girl to go to school, eventually enrol in nursing and finish college.
But it’s a big dream knowing the modest earrnings of the couple as masseurs.
They have a combined income of about P600 a day. Most of this is spent for food and other daily needs. The couple live in one of the rooms of a Christian church in Mandaue City.
When Angel reaches pre-school age, Guaca said he hopes to earn more.
“Maybe there are kind-hearted people out there who would sponsor the education of my child.” Reporter Dale G. Israel
