When Amber Cavarlez was in high school and her mother died of colon cancer, she and her Filipino Catholic family went to church and lit candles every day. But, she says, “After she passed, nothing was said about it. No one talked about it.”
In her home, she says, sadness was an “invisible subject.” And when she cried at school and sought help, she received an anonymous message through Facebook that said, “Don’t cry at school because no one cares.”