SENTENCED

Julita wanted to ran away after she heard the discussion of her parents with Marion's parents that they are going to marry when she knows Marion was not serious to marry her. She wondered why they came to their house without informing her. Her parents didn't discussed anything about the visit of Marion's parents. She was worried what will happen when Marion had no stable job while she had only a year working as an assistant at the Drug Store. That's where she met Marion when he went to buy the prescription for her mother who had heart problems and high blood pressure. She really didn't know why her parents made their decision that she will get marry when they know that she is far from planning to be tied up into a married life. Maybe her father didn't like her to enter the convent. His father received a letter from one of the religious society who accept novices planning to enter the convent. Julita was very obedient as a growing child. She saw the hardhip of her mother selling anything in the town market and his father was also a farmer. She didn't like to do the same thing and studied hard to finish a pharmacy course. While her parents struggled to earn their livelihood Julita didn't like to meet any guy during her high school and college years. Instead she went to church and joined volunteers to help the young children who were orphaned or abandoned by youngsters who left their child for adoption. Julita was afraid of this kind of mistreatment to women and to children when man ran away from their responsibility to support a child and raise a family. That's why Julita didn't like to get close to man when she learned that they do not love and respect women and a child . Julita was wondering why this is happening in a society where men

and women were suppose to know that having a relationship is not just physical. It must be founded on the different factors based on emotion or feelings. mind or thoughts and the soul or spirit. Young men and women go to church attend classes on childcare parenting and family education but only a few will come to an in-depth understanding about parenthood. Parents no longer had the direct control of their children's behavior when both of them worked hard to earn their livelihood. Another reason when parents didn't finished a secondary level of education they tend to decide for themselves without consulting their parents about their school problems and their relationship to the opposite sex. JUlita and Marion took their wedding vows and on her wedding day Julita cannot hold her tears knowing the treacherous path of becoming a wife and later on becoming a mother. Was she ready to take the responsibility? Inside her was the endearing thoughts about his father who showed her the utmost care of a parent to her child that Julita can't imagine his father would do it for her. When she became sick his father was the one who brought her to a doctor's clinic not her mother who was too busy with her business. Julita was not cured at the clinic going farther to the provincial hospital and still she was not cured. Was that not a big sacrifice for his father? His father brought her to the capital city of Manila to let her check by a specialist for her prolonged insomnia. Maybe she didn't sleep for about three months and she had lost considerable weight. The treatment included the folk medicine. When she finished her medication his father brought her home with the Spiritista to administer a ritual for her in their house. She needed a chicken to be offered and washed her from head to toe. Julita was cured with her illness. She thought her parents were afraid that no one will take care of her incase her illness will resurfaced. But why do they choose her to marry Marion? This was unfair to Julita who was against marriage when the couple are not ready to take the big responsibility of child-rearing and earning a livelihood. Can Marion do that? Julita doubted about it. He comes from a big family while she was an only child and her parents were hard up to send her to school,. How much more to Marion who has younger siblings and his father was also a merchant like her mother. How could Julita survived with Marion? She cried on her wedding day when a friend told her that Marion had a girlfriend who was expecting her child from Marion? Was that not a sad news? The more she resented to be married. She remembered the abandoned children at the Children's Society and the most regrettable thing was the fact it was her most horrific fear was to hear about the child who will not be recognize to be member of both families ,Marion and Julita. It was not a happy day for Julita. Even her mother didn't attend her wedding ceremony and she was not at the reception either. Maybe her reason was that the wedding didn't make the necessary preparations. Who would be happy when no one knows where the reception would be and who will carry the expenses? Why did they not consult Julita? It's good Marion's grandmother came forward to offer her house and to butcher her three pigs and three dozens of her chicken having a big farm. Everything were prepared by Marion's relatives since Julita's relatives were not informed on who will make preparations for the reception. Julita spent her own money for her wedding dress and her in laws didn't offer her anything. Even the wedding rings were borrowed. These were the reasons why Julita cried on her wedding day. Who would be happy about the circumstances? She was not consulted about the wedding. Maybe his father was afraid that she will not agree but he liked her to get marry so that Marion can take care of her when she get sick. To Julita, the rumor that Marion had a child with another woman and he didn't go for her, it saddened her thinking about the abandoned children at the Adoption Center. Then the reception. How much was spent and who would pay back his grandmother? It was not a happy occasion at all for Julita. Only if they consulted her these problems must have been avoided having no plans to get marry at all. Who then was to blame? At church Julita learned that God chooses the man and woman to get marry to unite them as one. Julita believes it too , even with a heavy heart she must accept that she was a married woman. To live together Marion and Julia asked the favor of their grandma if they could live with her in which they were more than welcome to occupy one of the rooms in the farm. Julita being a God fearing woman only prayed to God for enlightenment not to look into others mistakes but to understand why it must happen. His father was very excited when JUlita gave birth to his grandson. This made Julita very happy as his father blessed her with her child Rading.