Vietnamese Motherly Love

Let visit Vietnam and let experience with the local people and let understand the mother love.

Her mother was blind; her husband died when he was young; her daughter is paralytic; the second son is disable; the eldest son died because of the cancer; the youngest son is unemployment because of weakness health; the daughter-in-law has congenital heart disease …They are only part of cruel misfortunes on the live of 88-year-old woman. But through them all, she remains resilient living, living for her children.

There has an old lady 88 years old who still sell some Vietnamese tea on the corner of Bao Khanh street- Hoan Kiem district during 30 years, hard working to earn for living and raising their disable sons.

Part of the miserable live with the local tea-shop

Nearly 30 years, from the war until now, on Bao Khanh street (opposite Hoan Kiem Lake), there is a faithful lady with old Vietnamese tea-shop daily to strenuous attempt earning for herself and his family.

People who regularly cross the street are too familiar with image of white-haired, opaque eyes of the old woman. She is Mrs. Phan Thi Yen. Having 30 years on this street, she has still sit between the 2 electronic pillars in the corner of street with a tea shop.  We called it is shop, but in fact, her shop has only one obsolete hand basket  with some Vietnamese tea, some cigarettes, two or three bottles of water, some peanut candy packs. I called her for a cup of water, she muttered: “It is too late now, do you still drink? I am going to move it…” I was surprised because it was only 3 p.m, I was going to ask but the woman who sitting besides gave fast signal and said softly: “She is blind, so if nobody tell her about the time she does not know it is soon or late “. Disclosure of this woman startled me. At this time, the old woman was looking for the teapot and pouring a cup of water to give me meticulously. Her hand was trembling…

Mrs. Yen is an original Hanoian, now she is 88 years old. Her mother was blind and died when she was young. Her farther remarried and she moved to live with her grandparents. Until his grandmother died, she worked as home help and she married at 20 years old and had 4 children. But the misfortunes continued to strike her family when her daughter suddenly got disease and her husband died.

She cried when talked about the family situation and his daughter. Now her daughter is 63 years old but only lying on bed. This motherly love is the motivation for her to hard working and bringing up her daughter. She does not want to come to old people rest home because there will be no one to take care her daughter. She must earn money to raise her daughter and buy medicals for her.

Everyday, she walks from the house and go to the shop until her eyes can not see, she must to hire a motorbike go to the shop from early in the morning to the completely dark in the evening all sunny or rainy days. She has no money to reserve the inventory. Sometimes, she asked a neighbor for a few runs to the end of street dealer shops to buy something when the products were empty.

Ms. Dung, an old friend of Mrs. Yen (her house is in Bao Khanh street), regularly to help her to sell products – said: “She does not go everywhere. She loved her daughter so much … I had known her for a long time. She survives until now because of her daughter”.

Stories of Mrs. Yen families are more lamentable than I thought. She was four children. Her daughter has been paralyzed for many years. The oldest son died because of cancer. Her daughter-in-law has congenital heart disease.

The second son who is a water company‘s worker, but unfortunately he was weighed by a broken water pipe that leading to disability.  The youngest son is unemployment because of the poor health.

With this small shop, Mrs. Yen must to earn money and support their children. She pays only 2,000VND for the lunch and her dinner is the bread.  With her, this is enough. Occasionally, there is a person who is love her and give her from 50 to 100,000 VND for buying medicals for her daughter, she is crying sob violently without uttering words.

When the night is come, she moves to the chair on the Hoan Kiem lakeshore that is opposite to Bao Khanh street until 11p.m. Her shop seems unchanged for 30 years. It has only one thing to change is the more thin and more austere of the old woman.

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