- Christine Fadriga, 59, is a 59-year-old woman from the Philippines who decided to move to the U.S. to help provide a better life for her four young children
- She has worked as a caregiver for nearly 20 years in Arizona and California, where she most recently helped her client, Bette Rosen, for six years until she died on Feb. 11
- “It’s a calling for me to take care of the sick and the dying and the needy,” says Fadriga, the subject of one of the 20 documentary short films about caregivers
The emotions are still fresh for caregiver Christine Fadriga, 59, whose client of six years died at the age of 97 on Tuesday, Feb. 11.
“She’s a very strong woman, very kind, very loving, jokes a lot,” Fadriga tells PEOPLE about Bette Rosen, whom she lived with and tended to at her Laguna Niguel home five days a week, during 24-hour shifts. “I miss her jokes. I miss her [voice].”
“It’s sad and it’s hard to let go of someone special,” she adds.
Fadriga’s story is one of many that’s being highlighted in a series of 20 short films about caregivers as part of the Well Beings campaign, a multi-year public health project to shed light on critical health issues in America, founded by PBS’ flagship D.C. station WETA. (The shorts as well as a Caregiving documentary — a full-length documentary film that includes Fadriga — are executive produced by Bradley Cooper’s Lea Pictures and WETA in association with Ark Media.)
Fadriga tells PEOPLE that before coming to the United States, she ran a “successful” flower shop in Cebu City and was the major supplier of imported flowers from around the world. However, through the “ups and downs” of life, she and her husband of over 20 years eventually separated and the shop closed.
“I told myself before the boat will sink and I’ll drag everybody down, might as well I’ll jump ship and do something,” she says.
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Making the decision to leave her children was “very difficult,” she admits. Yet she doesn’t “have any regrets” about coming to America in order to provide a better future for them.
“How could a mother leave a 6-month-old baby, but for the good of everybody … I had to leave,” she shares. Plus, knowing that the children’s father was there to help and that her kids had other family members to live with helped make her feel more secure with her decision.
courtesy Christine Fadriga
By 2006, after taking a six month course in caregiving, Fadriga arrived in Arizona and then two years later moved to California, working as a caregiver for several clients with a range of ailments and illnesses.
Fadriga says that through her work, she’s realized there is a connection between her passion for flowers and caregiving.
“I can feel the plants if it needs to be watered, if it needs to be fertilized, if it needs to be trimmed, I can feel them,” she adds.
courtesy Christine Fadriga
Today, her children “are all grown up” and live in California, Canada and the Philippines.
“I’m just happy that they’re all capable people,” the grandmother says.
Following Rosen’s passing, Fadriga says she would like to spend more time visiting with her family in the Philippines to make up for lost time, but one day, she hopes to create a program that helps mothers provide more for their children.
“It’s a calling for me to take care of the sick and the dying and the needy,” she says. “It was an experience that I love, it’s in my heart, it’s ingrained.”
A Caregiver’s Heart will premiere in Irvine, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 21 (National Caregivers Day) and is hosted by Comfort Keepers, another Caregiving project sponsor.
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