The miserable situation of a man raising three sick people

(Baonghean.vn) - Mr. Nguyen Dinh Than (born in 1956) in Dong Son hamlet, Thanh Khai commune (Thanh Chuong) has to work in the fields, go to the market, cook and take care of his bedridden wife and two mentally disabled children.

When we arrived at the house, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Than was not out, his wife - Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hien was holding on to the wall of the house and crawling from inside the house to the well, saying that he was weeding in the field. Ms. Luong - a commune policy officer asked her son, Nguyen Dinh Long, to go and call him back, but Mrs. Hien stopped her: "Don't tell him he's gone, he doesn't know where to find you, if he goes again, we'll have to ask someone to go and find him." A moment later, her grandson, who was in grade 4, came home from school, Mrs. Hien told him to ride his bike to find him.

Mr. Than - short, small, dark-skinned, with a haggard appearance, few words, answering every question. To him, it seemed that the hardships and difficulties that he and his family were going through were his destiny. Mr. Than and his wife had 4 children, the eldest was married but due to poverty, the wife filed for divorce, leaving her children with her husband and then disappeared.

To make a living, the son sent his child back to his grandparents to work as a construction worker, working wherever he was hired, but it was only enough to support himself, and only occasionally, every few months, he could save up 500-700 to send to his grandparents to buy books for his child to study.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Than's family has two mentally disabled children and his wife is paralyzed in both legs. Photo: Dam Phuong

The second daughter is married in Thai Binh, also a farmer, with an income just enough to eat. The second son, Nguyen Dinh Long (born in 1984) and daughter Nguyen Thi Thien (born in 1978), are both mentally disabled. Before she got sick, Mrs. Hien and Mr. Than took care of the farm, housework, and two children. For the past 15 years, she has been seriously ill and bedridden, unable to work, so all the work falls on Mr. Than's shoulders.

He alone manages 5 sao of contracted rice fields, which have a large area but low yield and unstable harvest because there is no one to take care of them... According to estimates, the winter-spring crop yields 1.5 tons and the autumn crop yields only a few quintals of rice. The whole family has 5 mouths to feed, if they are not frugal, they will lack food for several months.

The two children did not know how to help their father. Even the simplest task of taking the cows to the field to graze was irregular. Eight out of ten times they went to herd the cows, they were hungry. The daughter did not know how to cook or wash dishes. Mr. Than had to do all sorts of work: plowing, weeding, harvesting, milling rice, washing clothes, going to the market to buy food, coming home to cook... to help his wife eat.

The main meals were roasted peanuts, fish scraps, and vegetables from the neighbors. Occasionally, he would have a few ounces of meat, which he bought because he thought his grandchild was still young and would crave it. He worked like a top all day and still couldn't finish his work. On days when his child didn't get sick, he still had time to go to the fields to weed. If unfortunately his child got sick and ran away, he would run around, one leg short, one leg long, to find his child.

His two children are old, but he has to serve and take care of them. Since Mrs. Hien became bedridden and unable to walk, he has had to take care of her like a child. For decades, Mr. Than has been working tirelessly, forgetting the days and months, sometimes forgetting to cook. He has no time to communicate with the villagers, only talking when people ask him questions, and not asking when they don't.

Even when asked, he just smiled, never complaining or moaning. One day, when his son went to herd the cows and they ran away, he quietly went from one field to another to find them.

Mr. Than's wife and two mentally disabled children. Photo: Dam Phuong

Mrs. Hien is paralyzed and bedridden but has no money to go to the hospital for a check-up, so when asked what her illness is, no one knows. Because she cannot work or do housework, her social security benefits only state: she has a mobility disability, is unable to work, and is entitled to a subsidy of 540,000 VND. Her two children, Long and Thien, each receive 405,000 VND, for a total of 1,445,000 VND.

Village chief Nguyen Van Hai said: Mr. Than's family is full of sick people so the house is extremely poor. Mr. Than alone cannot take care of everything but he is a man of few words and does not complain. His house, which he built 6-7 decades ago, is about to collapse. His wife is sick but has no money to go to the hospital so she just crawls around the house. His two mentally ill children only know how to eat and destroy things but do not know how to do anything to help their father.

The commune has money to support the house repair and the bank loan of 10 million VND with low interest rate, but his family does not have money to add to the repair, so they have to accept the dilapidated condition, which can collapse at any time. Hopefully, there will be a benefactor who will join hands to support his family to add more funds to repair the house to make it tight above and durable below to withstand the rainy season.

Ha Linh