IN the age of social media and WhatsApp stickers, Malaysian actress Betty Banafe (pic) still gets physical Mothers Day cards.

Every Mothers Day, her daughter Julia Claire Dargus, 12, and son Bruce Dean Dargus, nine, would pen a personal letter to her, Harian Metro reported.

“Each time its is Mothers Day, they would make me a card. They would also write a letter to me and have been doing so all this while. I never taught them to do this,” said the actress.

“I always remind them that every day is Mothers Day,” said Betty, whose real name is Betty Ibtisam Abu Bakar Banafe.

She added that both her children understood that she was a single mum and loved her with all their heart.

She said she would also reminded them that God had placed mothers highly in the eyes of society, owing to the sacrifices they make for their children.

In her Mothers Day message, Betty urged children of all ages to show appreciation to their mothers.

> In its Mothers Day coverage, Sinar Harian featured Jesnita Zakaria, 40, who shared her experiences and challenges of being a young mother and wife.

Jesnita, from Kuala Terengganu, got married when she was 18, while still a university student.

Her parents were reluctant to allow her to get married at such a young age as they were worried that she would not be able to cope with the pressures of raising a family.

“When I told them I wanted to get married, they were worried that I would not be able to manage a household and do that while I was still studying. But after some persuasion, my parents agreed to the marriage,” she said.

The early years were tough as her husband did not have a permanent job and she had to juggle between raising an infant and her university studies.

Fortunately she had a lot of support and guidance from her neighbours and eventually learned how to effectively manage a household.

“There are advantages in marrying young as my eldest is now 21 while my two other children as 19 and 13. There had been a lot of challenges but after seeing my children all grown up, I feel grateful,” she added.

Jesnita separated from her husband in 2018 but remarried in 2022 and had another child last year.

(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)