Away From Home

Holding the family together, despite the distance

When the job of the bread-winner entails frequent travels for work away from Manila, and Covid-19 comes in and puts a stop to travelling, what should the family do? It was a hard decision for the Dingcong brood, to make but they knew, deep inside, that their 50-year-old father George had to fulfill his commitments as a contractor back in their hometown in Bacolod City.

“2019 was a slow year for his construction firm and so when he decided to renovate his mom’s home in Bacolod in that same year, he thought that it would be a good idea to also take on projects there since he would fly in and out of Bacolod anyway to check on the house renovations. When the pandemic hit last March, we had to weigh things and decided it was the logical thing for him to stay in Bacolod so he could finish his projects there,” shares George’s 45-year-old wife, freelance makeup artist Chiqui.

The family was used to George flying in and out for projects all over the country, but the most that he had been away was five days. “It was unchartered territory for all of us. We never thought it would drag on for three months and counting,” she adds.

Flying out