The story started with Rica in bed while thinking about the past. Then back to the time when her father was telling her the story about the Big Lady. Rica is the main persona in the story. She is smart, though little too serious for a six years old. Rica's father is a loving father who, most probably whink highly of their family. Her mother is a hard working woman who left for work abroad. Though her mother had a good reason in going abroad, it greatly affected her family. Rica didnt get to enjoy her childhood as the absence of her mother and her father eventual drinking habits caused her unhappiness and lead her to become too mature for her age. Big lady is an imaginary character that was created by the father. She is something that has become the coping mechanism for rica.
As Rica is coping from the significant loss as a result of her mother's physical absence from Paris and her fathers distance which refuses to read a letter from her mother and respond to requests concerning newborn photographs. It is now clear that this work is based on Rica, just like every Filipino child who has never forgotten their mothers' loving contact. Ricas father has difficulty in connecting Rica since he couldn't accept that Rica had to stay with his father, which was not his real role for him.
The story emphasizes the importance of the many roles that each member of a Filipino family does. Parents usually migrate overseas to provide for their families due to our low level of living. The irony of the story was that the father helped Rica get over her sadness because her mother was far away, but he couldn't get over his own sadness since he was far away from his wife.
The Sadness Collector by Merlinda Bobis present the unexpected yet accepted outcome. I believed that this narrative might teach us many moral lessons, particularly for children to comprehend the situations and motivations of OFW parents. To accomplish so, the author must utilize terms that are simple to understand on first reading. Nonetheless, Merlinda Bobis wrote a wonderful and lovely story with a lot of message for the audience.
