The Lifestyle.INQ mothers we love
Moms are a million things, and no two are alike. They are much like vines, stretching their tendrils in every direction to hold a house together. You can often sense a mom by her energy—a bustling mind working 24/7 to keep everything afloat, from emotions and personal passions to car logistics and what to have for dinner. And despite it all, a mom remains stable, her core intact, expanding through the act of loving and raising children.
These mothers, formerly featured on Lifestyle.INQ, embody this multiplicity in their respective fields while also revealing the particular ways they love their children. In anticipation of Mother’s Day this Sunday, they share what motherhood means to them.
Amanda Griffin Jacob
“A mother is a quiet force. She holds space for everyone else, often before herself. She nurtures, guides, and shows up, even on the days she’s running on empty. She is softness and strength in the same breath.”
Bambina Olivares: Curator and writer
“I wrote this poem in December 2019, one of the first Christmases without my daughters in over a decade, and the last Christmas with my mother, who was already very frail from chemotherapy. It sums up my feelings about motherhood.”
“To My Daughters
I never taught you to love your country
because you had so many.
Your souls breathed equations far more complex
than the ethnic fractions that blurred your blood
Your identities—fluid, firm, fractured—
were always yours to define.
But you were mine always, mine
for a time at least
mine to conjure
mine to define
As you were berthed inside me
woven double helix-shaped strands
of me coiling up and down your floating, forming body
My genes, my blood in yours
my past and future histories
diluted and amplified
The multiplicity of memory
subtly pressing itself into your placenta-nourished universe.
In your every breath is the dust of my stars.
With your every breath, we are eternal
I had no idea then that in my womb I carried so many lifetimes.”
– Bambina Olivares (2019)
Barbie Almalbis-Honasan: Singer, songwriter, and guitarist
“A mother is someone who gives of herself with gladness, who bleeds for her children. She nurtures us and gives us a deep and lasting sense of love and security that we carry along throughout our lives.”
Beauty Gonzalez: Actress
“My definition of a mother is someone strong enough to be a father, yet can be kind, gentle, and inquisitive enough to see things with the eyes of a child. Someone who can shimmy between good cop and bad cop as the situation calls for, and someone who understands that her child is not her child to own and control but to grow up with and learn from each other.”
Bianca Brandner: Human design life coach
“To me, a mother is someone who supports her children’s growth without trying to control them.
She guides, nurtures, and challenges them, while allowing them to make mistakes and discover who they are on their own. She allows them to explore and helps them build the confidence to stand on their own two feet. At the same time, she creates a safe, accepting, and loving home and relationship that they can always come back to. It’s about raising them with both freedom and deep support.”
Candy Dizon: Jeweler and writer
“For me, the definition of a mother is the soul each new spirit chooses to be connected to. Whether they have loved each other in past lives or are meeting for the very first time, the bond is one of the strongest there is, physical, mental, and emotional. A mother is often the first home we know, the first voice we trust, and the first love that shapes us long after childhood ends.”
Juana Yupangco: Author and nutritionist
“A mother is self-sacrificing, gives everything for her children, while sometimes forgetting herself, but is happy to do so. She’s the only one who will be 100 on your side, right or wrong. She’s always there when you need her, and when you think you don’t.”
Karla Delgado: Founder of regenerative Kai Farms
“A mother is someone who loves unconditionally, with all her heart and all her being.”
Mercy Malabanan: Head of house and overseas worker
“Para sa akin, walang makakapantay sa pagmamahal ng isang ina—gagawin ang lahat para sa kanyang anak at sa kanyang pamilya, kahit ang buhay ibibigay niya. At ang pagiging ina ay hindi sa pagiging perpekto, ’yong pipiliin pa rin mahalin, alagaan at gabayan ang anak kahit pa anong pagod. Pagmamahal na walang hinihintay na kapalit. Unconditional love.”
Reggie Aspiras: Chef and author
“My definition of a mother is home… Where food is always delicious, love is given freely, and where one is nurtured without condition. Home is where one feels safe, seen, and never judged.
Home is where one is allowed to dream—to dream big, to dream freely, to become all that one can be.
A mother is that place my son Diego can always come back to when life gets tough, no matter how old he is.”
Sanj V. Licaros: Hospitality and social graces writer and consultant
“To me, a mother creates a loving, nurturing, safe space, gently guiding her children to be God-centered, well-rounded, and grounded in values.”
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