Cuddling my newborn niece Jellica in the living room, I listened to my sister’s singing echoing through from the kitchen. Bennylyn, then 23, had the sweetest voice, and it seemed my content little niece agreed as she slept soundly in my arms.
It was autumn 2018 and Bennylyn was a wonderful mother. There’d been six of us siblings growing up in the Philippines with my dad Ben and mum Alele.
While I was nine years older, Bennylyn and I were so close – as kids we’d do each other’s make-up and as we got older we’d go on shopping trips.
Then, at 20, Bennylyn had fallen in love with a British man who’d moved to our city and settled down nearby. I was