The pain of "white death"

(Baonghean) - “This year I am over 80 years old, my legs are no longer steady, I have to use a cane to walk along the roads in the central area of ​​Que Phong district. Every day, I go to markets, shops, and families to beg for money and rice. I used to have a property, but my children became drug addicts, so our assets gradually disappeared... My family fell into poverty, I became a beggar, maintaining my life by relying on the pity of others...”.

I am Tran Van S, born and raised in a coastal countryside. At that time, people in my hometown only knew how to make salt and fish along the shore. Since the 60s of the last century, my wife and I went to the border district of Que Phong to reclaim land and develop the economy. From a place with "narrow land and a large population", up here with vast hills and fertile land, my wife and I decided to join hands to build a life in the new land. Our three children (2 boys, 1 girl) were born in difficult, hard days but full of love, the family home was always filled with laughter. We cleared each hillside full of cogon grass, felled forest trees to make room for corn, sugarcane and cassava. Then we blocked streams, built dams, reclaimed rice fields to grow rice. Not to mention the difficulties, hardships, and fatigue; it is impossible to calculate how much effort and sweat was poured into the cornfields and rice fields. The land did not fail the efforts and hearts of the hard-working, diligent people. The bumper crops, lush corn fields, and sweet sugarcane fields are the fruits we deserve. The years of hardship and hardship have passed, and happiness has multiplied as the children have grown up, become more obedient, and actively help their parents with their business and develop the family economy…

But then, in life, no one can predict the unexpected. The efforts of several decades, almost the entire life of my wife and I, were suddenly broken. Around the year 2000, the drug vortex covered almost all the villages, making many families bankrupt, sowing the seeds of unhappiness and suffering for countless people. Rich families suddenly became penniless, young men became physically and mentally disabled, children who had not yet grown up followed the "white ghost". My two sons, who were hard-working and diligent, were knocked down by the evil vortex of drugs. Listening to the enticements of their friends, they learned to smoke, then inject, and increasingly neglected their work. At first, I did not understand why they suddenly did not want to go to the sugarcane fields to weed, did not want to go to the corn fields to get corn. For some reason, they just went all day, all night, skipped meals, and did not care about family work. One day, our first son fell ill, foaming at the mouth, his limbs twitching, his eyes glazed over. At that time, my wife and I still did not believe that our son was addicted to drugs. He was gentle, hard-working, and obedient to his parents. Not long after, our second son began to show the same symptoms as his older brother. My wife and I had completely lost our faith and hope, and our hearts were in turmoil. My wife fainted and could not eat for several days, only taking a few spoonfuls of porridge to keep her alive.

From then on, our house no longer had laughter, our accumulated wealth went up in smoke. My family began to fall into endless debt, life was miserable. At first, they stole chickens, ducks, corn husks, rice husks to sell for money to smoke. Then they sold the TV and other things in the house. When they ran out of furniture, they even dared to take away the buffaloes and cows. My parents scolded and cried until they had no more tears, but they didn't listen. They were no longer human, they had been led and shown the way by the "white ghost". After a while, my two sons had sores all over their bodies, slowly dying in pain. They passed away not far apart, within a few months. My wife was exhausted, bedridden since then...

After paying for the funerals of my two sons, looking back at our family's assets, there was almost nothing of value left. The wooden house had to be demolished and sold to pay off debts, and the old couple had to live temporarily in a dilapidated shack... Old age and weak health, hundreds of diseases fell upon me, so I no longer had enough strength to plow deeply and hoe like before. I had to drag my limping legs, using a cane to go all over the area to make a living... There were times when I thought about leaving this land to return to my hometown, to live in the care of relatives and neighbors. My hometown's fishing village has now developed, people have bought big boats to go out to sea to fish, the sea provides so many things to feed people. But I couldn't do it, couldn't set foot in my hometown. After being away for decades, when I returned, I was only an old body, limping legs, and not having a single coin, how could I face everyone? Then people asked about my family, children, and what I had achieved. How could I answer?

Many times on the begging street, in pain and shame, I wondered if my two children were to come back to life and see their parents become beggars, would they still smoke and inject drugs? And if I could do it all over again, if I could go back to the days when I first came here to start a business, how would I raise my children?...

Cong Kien(take note)