Growing up, it has been like that hard in Mj's part as young as she was, but the experiences have made her grew maturely ahead from her actual age, and made her stronger even more. And along the way, Mj and her Dad Bart have established to have a strong bond as 'buddies', as 'Papa's Girl' and later on as 'besfriends', for her Dad would literally confide with her as she would also confide with him, vice versa. It's like Mj's intelligence and outlooks in life would match and is compatible to her Dad. They even sing in duets and play guitar together, from time to time and on special occassions like birthdays Christmas, New Years and so on.
Well they say, Mj got her beauty from her Mom and she got her brains and talents from her Dad. It's a good combination.
When Mj went to college, she was sent by her Mom to be taken cared of by her grandmother (Mom Mione's mother). For her schooling to be financially supported, guided and taken cared of by her grandmother.
Mj then graduated college and landed a good job as a public school elementary teacher in the city.
While her Dad, Mom, and her 3 younger brothers lived in the contryside which is 140 kilometers away from the city. So Mj could only come home and be with her parents and sibs during holidays and special occassions because of her job. Though she have constant communications with her Dad as they can call and text in their celfones, but during those times, there is no messenger app that can be used in the mobile phones yet coz those apps can only be installed in the Personal Computers yet.
So their 'confiding' relationship between Mj and her Dad is somewhat limited too. And Dad Bart, aside from Mj, has no other one to confide with. So he developed a heart illness.
And when her Dad Bart died from heart attack coz of the argument Dad Bart and Mom Mione had prior to the incident, Mj, eventhough she was deeply devastated, being the eldest among her sibs, and being the only one who graduated and has worked as a public elementary school teacher, she suppressed her grieving feeling and rose up and stood up to take care of the family and be the breadwinner- the head of their family. She took over her Dad's responsibilities, for her Mom was useless and don't know anything what to do.
Their Mom Mione foolishly turned to borrow big amounts of money from the loan sharks without informing anyone of her children and spent the money foolishly on nonsense things. Soon, the money was spent and the loan sharks demanded payment from Mom Mione, which she turned to ask and begged Mj for money to pay it.
"Mom, when you borrowed the money and told them that you have a daughter that is a teacher so you can borrow from them, you didn't even told me about it and you spent the money foolishly. And now that they demanded for your payment you turn to me?" astonished but hurt on what her Mom did using Mj's name.
"I'm sorry I was foolish then. But could you bear it in your heart if me, your own mother will be imprisoned coz I could not pay it?" cried her Mom.
Seeing her Mom cried, Mj, having a soft heart, was moved and pitied her Mom.
"I'll see what I can do Mom. I will have to borrow from a loan company then so I can pay your debt coz I don't have enough cash with me. But please Mom, don't do this again."
"Yes, I promise I won't do this again." Mom Mione swearing.
Mj borrowed from the loan company and paid the loan sharks her Mom owed money from.
Few months after, Mom Mione did borrowed again and again, and Mj did paid her debts again and again until Mj's salary every month has not much left, for all the loans and re-loans she did in paying her Mom's debts was deducted all from her salary every month.
Soon, Mj felt like she's literally being bloodsucked by her unrepentant mother to the point of only few hundreds of Philippine Pesos are being left from her salary every month coz she kept paying her Mom's debts everywhere. In time, her heart towards her Mom is also hardened.
And that was during those times that she met and became bestfriends with Ja. For Ja can somehow relate and understand Mj's situations. For she too, came from a poor family, for she worked as a library assistant so she can graduate college.
Since then, Ja has been there for her through her tough and good times. And she's the one who have pushed Mj to try on online dating as a detour from all her stress she's been experiencing from her Mom.
Needless to say, that was the start of her search for true love from Online Dating...