Caridad Sanchez’s daughter shares heartbreaking revelation of actress’ dementia

Cathy Babao, daughter of veteran actress Caridad Sanchez, waxes over this feeling after her recent revelation on social media that the beloved movie icon is going through dementia.

Sanchez, who turned 87 last August, was first diagnosed in late 2015, according to Babao.

“She remains physically strong. There are good and bad days pero paulit-ulit siya,” she related to ABS-CBN News Friday, citing the pattern of forgetting and repeating herself.

Anticipatory grief is how Babao calls her current emotion. “It’s a long goodbye. Overtime, you slowly lose the person. You just prepare for it. ”

The irony is not lost on Babao, an eminent grief counselor and educator, who transformed the loss of her 4-year-old son Migi in 1998 to heart disease into a lifelong service of easing the pain of other people who lost their loved ones.

Babao has had her own realization — more than the fear and ignorance of other people on the issue, the moral thing to do she says is to speak about it to provide a light for others going through similar pain.

Above all, she cites the importance of rising above the stigma of the disease.

“Why keep it a secret? Hindi naman nakakahiya if we can help others with their journey. I know there are other families going through it but who don’t speak about it. Kaya nga dapat may early detection, awareness and acceptance, so we can arm ourselves with the right information and access to right medicines and care. I believe my mom will be happy too knowing she was somehow able to help,” she said.