The Woman of 10 Years of Asceticism
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Ms. Thoa with her sick husband. |
Her full name is Nguyen Thi Thoa, born in 1975 in Hamlet 5 (Ke Sot Village), Hop Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh District, Nghe An. In 1997, she married Mr. Pham Hong Nha, a villager. When she gave birth to her first son, who was 3 months old, Mr. Nha suddenly fell ill, with back and leg pain that prevented him from walking. Although she had just given birth, she had to send her child away and take him to the hospital for treatment due to her husband's illness. Doctors at the provincial hospital determined that Mr. Nha had a spinal cord tumor. She sold all the furniture in the house and borrowed money from relatives, neighbors and the bank to treat her husband, but his illness did not improve but became worse.
For more than a year, her husband was in the hospital and she tried her best to endure all the hardships, but now she could no longer hold on, so she had to hold back her tears and bring him back home. The small house was empty and desolate, the creditors came to collect, the child was sick, she was so upset that she didn't know who to turn to, she was exhausted, sick for more than a month, and her hair fell out. Everything in the house depended on her old and sick grandmother and the help of the neighbors.
She couldn't be sad forever, she had to work! She started to renovate the garden to grow vegetables, borrowed money to buy chickens and pigs to raise. Her family farmed more than a acre of rice fields, when there was no more farming work, she went to the fields to catch crabs, snails, and drained the ditches to find shrimp and prawns. When the shrimp and crabs in the fields dried up because people caught too many, she went to the market twice a day with a vegetable stall, then worked as a street vendor, worked for hire, took on sewing and embroidery jobs. She worked hard day and night, spinning like a top to earn money for medicine and food for her husband and children.
People say that wherever there is a good doctor and good medicine, no matter how far away, she will go to find one. Mr. Nha is bedridden and cannot move, so she takes care of all his personal activities. Every day, she spends 2 hours massaging him; and the child born in that situation is always sick and weak.... Despite the hardship and poverty, she always keeps the house clean and tidy; loves and takes care of her husband very attentively and thoughtfully. According to her husband's wish to see the village change, she used straw and blankets to line a modified cart and then carried him around the village, to see Dinh River and Binh Rut where they used to date. Everyone who witnessed that scene was moved to tears.
For more than 10 years taking care of her husband and children, working day and night, she has never had a moment to rest. Although she is only 34 years old, her face has many wrinkles, her eyes are sunken and dark; her hair has many silver strands, she looks much older than her age!
We arrived at the house and saw her massaging him. Looking around, there was nothing of value except a small fan, an old bed, and a small table for the children to study. The neighbor, Mrs. Sen, had tears in her eyes when talking about her: “Thoa has suffered a lot since she got married, taking her husband from the hospital to another hospital and then bringing him home to take care of him, for more than 10 years without ever complaining. Nowadays, it is rare to find someone like that. She also suffered terribly, eating cassava and sweet potatoes for meals and giving her rice to her husband and children. Poor thing, she was gentle, diligent, and endured hardships, but God punished her. Everyone in the village loved her.”
We asked her: With such a difficult life, what do you wish for the most? Ms. Thoa smiled through tears: "I dare not wish for anything, I just hope to pay off all the bank debt and work hard to save up to send my husband to Hanoi for medical treatment!"
She really wanted to take her husband to Hanoi for treatment in the hope that he would gradually recover. However, her simple wish was difficult to fulfill as she currently owed the bank more than twenty million and was unable to pay. Her husband Nha was not only paralyzed but also had many other internal diseases, so she had to take him to the district hospital for treatment.
Hopefully the kindness of the community will help her overcome this hardship and fulfill that simple dream.
Tien Dung -Hop Thanh, Yen Thanh, Nghe An
