Don’t worry, it’s not Yaya Isay

Remember Raviv’s other nanny with whom Yaya Isay had an altercation?  Yep, it’s she.  When Isay fought with her, Isay actually told me she didn’t want Lina to be her partner in taking care of Raviv.  But I shrugged it off because I liked Lina despite her loud voice and strong personality.  She was big so she can easily scoop Raviv, unlike other younger girls who immediately complain how heavy Raviv is.  She’s also widowed and her youngest kid is already in high school, thus I felt secure that the usual reasons for leaving won’t happen–you know the typical, “Ayaw na po akong payagan ng asawa ko mag-work” or “Wala po kasing magbabantay ng anak ko.”

So I blinded myself into thinking that Lina was just tough on the outside but was a softie inside.  But how very blind I was.

Last Sunday she asked for straight days off: she asked to leave on Sunday afternoon and return on Wednesday morning.  I expressed my dissent because our agreement was that she and Isay will have their weekly days off on a Wednesday or on a Friday, as that’s when Raviv goes to school (which means less work for the yaya who’s not on a day off).  But she said she needed to go to SSS to process her deceased husband’s papers so she could get her pension.  I relented.  But on Wednesday she texted our other helper she was very sick and could not travel.  Ditto the following day.  I somehow did not believe it, and my horse sense was right:  someone spilled the beans that she did not go to SSS but rather went to her jobless, a decade-younger boyfriend’s  place in Cavite.  And no, she wasn’t sick.  But I might have been able to forgive that.  What I can’t forgive was what I heard from our office staff, Ivy. [Read more...]