As the oldest child, Caroline took the brunt of her abusive mother’s anger.  Her childhood was darkened with memories of her mother beating her while her father cried and tried to stop her.  She never knew the reason for her mother’s cruelty, or why it was directed only at her and not her siblings.  When she asked her mother, as an adult, why she continued to treat her badly even though she was a good daughter, her mother’s response was, “I became like this because of you.”

Caroline moved to Manila and dropped out of school at age 13.  Although some of her friends worked in the bars and pressured her to join them to make more money, Caroline’s childhood dream was to own her own barbeque stand.