Richard’s doting mother, Josie Herrera-Tinimbang, always told him, “If you’re mea nt to be with someone, then God will always find a way for your paths to cross.”  These words could not have been any truer to describe the chance encounter of Richard Tinimbang and Maribel Bacalan on that fateful day in July 2006. Richard was at the office of his family’s healthcare business, Donnarich Home Health Care, Inc.,  while Maribel had a job interview with a competing healthcare agency in the same building.

That is when fate decided to step in. Maribel, a physical therapist, was trying to contact her job interviewer who, despite several attempts, was not answering her phone.  Maribel saw Richard’s mom in front of her office suite and approached her thinking that she may be the interviewer in question.  Of course, she wasn’t but when asked, Josie neither denied nor confirmed this.  Instead, she invited Maribel into her office to be interviewed by her eldest son, Richard.  The rest is now history.  Richard and Maribel’s whirlwind romance ended in a civil marriage on December 31, 2006, only five months after their first-chance encounter.   (read more inside pages)