If anyone ever asks my mom about how she has grown emotionally over the past years, the best person to ask would be us, her daughters. Years before she contracted breast cancer, when I was still in primary school, I used to label her "The Tigress". I gave her this unique nickname, as she was fierce and very quick to anger. Once she is angry, everyone can forget about taking a peaceful and restful day off. (Even including my daddy!) Also, she would have the habit of adding salt to the open wound by finding some excuses to scold and blame us.

There was once she got really agitated by our messy desk and soon, the whole neighborhood could hear what she was screaming about. After shouting and scolding us, she retreated into her room and everyone thought that the ordeal was over. But the worse was yet to come. Being frustrated, she started to pack her own room and made a huge fuss out of everything. In short, before her cancer, she was petty, narrow-minded, unreasonable, pessimistic, so on and so forth.

However, this changed completely and tremendously after she contracted and survived her illness. She seemed to have seen the light and started to become less of what she was in the past. She began to have a bigger heart that was more open-minded, less quick to anger, able to take things on the lighter side, and more understanding. We could now talk and joke about almost anything that I couldn't have done before. She appeared happier, began to smile and shine more. Although this process takes a long time, as change is something everyone is afraid of, much improvement is shown compared to the past, and it is still progressing.