Meet Bonita Vista High School's academic dream team:
Angela, Brianna and Cherisse Magtoto.
If you read their names over just a little bit, you’ll see they're in alphabetic order. It’s why they’re known as the A-B-C Magtoto Triplets. They were born just a minute apart.
"Cool thing is our parents named us in alphabetical order, from oldest to youngest," Angela said.
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In 2022, the Chula Vista girls lost their dad to Alzheimer's disease. They were sophomores at the time. The triplets and their mother became caretakers for him. He enjoyed his last days in home hospice with his wife and triplet daughters. They said it wasn't easy, but they would not have wanted it any other way.
The triplets know life is precious. Their late father, a Navy veteran, would be three times proud of his daughters, who have all been accepted to prestigious schools.
"I just knew I wanted to give back to him," Angela said. "I wanted to show that we cared for him. Show him the love and the care he provided for us."
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Angela will attend USC, Cherise is headed to Stanford, and Brianna will be going to the East Coast to Yale University. Cherise said she could have gone to USC with her older triplet Angela but ...
"I think she's happy for me," Cherise said. "And I think she does not want to be with me. So, she does not want to go to school with me. When we were applying for colleges she told me, 'No, I am not going to school with you.' "
The girls, who describe their dad as a total girl dad, are grateful for his sacrifices to be a stay-at-home dad while their mom worked full-time as a registered nurse.
"Throughout his illness, we always made it a priority to keep our grades up, even though we were struggling," Angela said. "Keep our grades up, keep our extracurriculars up, because that's what he wanted. He wanted us to succeed in school."
Another thing their dad wanted was for his family to stay together and to always keep in touch.
"We've all talked about it," Brianna said. "Cherise and Angela are going to stay in California, and I am going to be on the opposite coast. So we’ll definitely have regular Facetime calls with each other and just check in every week to make sure we are all OK."
