MISS BROWN RICE PETROL STATION MIRACLE
10 Febuary 2024
Dear Everyone ----- Four Months Ago
She struggled out of the taxi with our street mom & the nice police lady – walking barefoot – itchy, scratchy, but not hunched over, not afraid, not like a six-year-old they just dragged out of the thorns & thistles & that other stuff: stinging nettles. Or just as bad, from pavement sleeping in a patrol station while her parents pumped gas.
Her little girl complexion: imagine: buying a package of used mosquito bites at your neighborhood supermarket store – plus a full head over-loaded with lice.
She was tears galore, but if you listened hard, you could make out her whisper, over and over, as tough as a five-year-old in rags can whisper; “ I won’t cry’ no matter how you hurt me, you can’t make me cry.’ – I promised - only nice girls who have mommies to hold them can cry & I don’t get no mommy to tell me she loves me.
Actually, her tears are what saved her. A couple of our slum lads “the bhoys” as the Irish call their special lads happen to be riding by on their motorcycle: …saw her dad slap his daughter/ Slap her too much, too hard, shouldn’t have slapped her at all, but it was a habit with him. Mom just watched afraid. He slapped her all the time also. The ‘bhoys’ stopped & slapped dad too much & too hard until his eyes jiggled. He agreed to take daughter to hospital right then and there.
We call it: the Miss Brown Rice Petrol Station Miracle. This is how ‘it went down.’ Our ‘bhoys’
Her mom & dad worked pumping gas at a petrol station –had five-year-old daughter Miss Brown Rice. Used her for polishing side mirrors, head lights, whatever, - they left her un-kempt & when business was slow, that is, just a few cars & motorcycles coming in the station to fill up with petrol, they sat her beside one of the gas pumps with a tin cup to beg for money.
Problem is – they didn’t feed her/take care of her very well, so she got sick quite often, hospital sick. The customers coming for gas fill-up noticed her coughing & wheezing. Mentioned to the parents should look after their daughter.
And that’s where our story really begins. And it begins again with her 3rd Kindergarten graduation ceremony next week, but that’s a story for tomorrow.
That day, four months ago, mom and dad took her to the emergency room at a near-by hospital. Of course, no legal documents in sight.
Mom from a remote village in Laos, not Catholic but treasured an ancient medal of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus given her long ago by her own grand mother. Miss Brown Rice’s dad born & raised in the worst of the Klong Toey slums. The hospital Emergency room immediately took 5 year old sick Brown Rice. Deal with sick/ first. Questions later.
Examaining the sick child, the medical people did not notice mom & dad slip away, abandoning their daughter. Said to one another she was in good hands. Afraid they themselves would be caught by police as ‘illegals’
Five year old Brown Rice was admitted – spent 13 days in hospital. Alone first two days & nights in the charity children’s ward. A nighttime nurse, a who lives in Klong Toey lady noticed the lonely little girl. Knew about us at Mercy Centre – made the all important phone call. Our most fabulous house mom packed her tooth brush, grabbed an old teddy bear, abandoned like Miss Brown Rice – for a friend - & spent all those days & nights with Miss Brown Rice. She and Teddy immediately fell in love with each other.
Thirteen hospital days the first time, plus a couple more times in these past four months Petrol Station five year old girls who grow up sleeping nights on petrol station pavement without a mommy to hold them do not do well. But if you love them a lot and take good Care of them, they get well. And they graduate from kindergarten three.
Next week here at Mercy Centre, Miss Brown Rice will graduate from kindergarten 3 with her class. She has a home. We love her, & ask you to love her – to love all our children.
Next week at our annual Kindergarten graduation, I wish you could be here. Stand beside me, & our Director Ms Usanee, & stand beside our proud graduate Miss Brown Rice together with her two hundred classmates from our seventeen slum kindergartens.
She struggled out of the taxi with our street mom & the nice police lady – walking barefoot – itchy, scratchy, but not hunched over, not afraid, not like a six-year-old they just dragged out of the thorns & thistles & that other stuff: stinging nettles. Or just as bad, from pavement sleeping in a patrol station while her parents pumped gas.
Her little girl complexion: imagine: buying a package of used mosquito bites at your neighborhood supermarket store – plus a full head over-loaded with lice.
She was tears galore, but if you listened hard, you could make out her whisper, over and over, as tough as a five-year-old in rags can whisper; “ I won’t cry’ no matter how you hurt me, you can’t make me cry.’ – I promised - only nice girls who have mommies to hold them can cry & I don’t get no mommy to tell me she loves me.
Actually, her tears are what saved her. A couple of our slum lads “the bhoys” as the Irish call their special lads happen to be riding by on their motorcycle: …saw her dad slap his daughter/ Slap her too much, too hard, shouldn’t have slapped her at all, but it was a habit with him. Mom just watched afraid. He slapped her all the time also. The ‘bhoys’ stopped & slapped dad too much & too hard until his eyes jiggled. He agreed to take daughter to hospital right then and there.
We call it: the Miss Brown Rice Petrol Station Miracle. This is how ‘it went down.’ Our ‘bhoys’
Her mom & dad worked pumping gas at a petrol station –had five-year-old daughter Miss Brown Rice. Used her for polishing side mirrors, head lights, whatever, - they left her un-kempt & when business was slow, that is, just a few cars & motorcycles coming in the station to fill up with petrol, they sat her beside one of the gas pumps with a tin cup to beg for money.
Problem is – they didn’t feed her/take care of her very well, so she got sick quite often, hospital sick. The customers coming for gas fill-up noticed her coughing & wheezing. Mentioned to the parents should look after their daughter.
And that’s where our story really begins. And it begins again with her 3rd Kindergarten graduation ceremony next week, but that’s a story for tomorrow.
That day, four months ago, mom and dad took her to the emergency room at a near-by hospital. Of course, no legal documents in sight.
Mom from a remote village in Laos, not Catholic but treasured an ancient medal of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus given her long ago by her own grand mother. Miss Brown Rice’s dad born & raised in the worst of the Klong Toey slums. The hospital Emergency room immediately took 5 year old sick Brown Rice. Deal with sick/ first. Questions later.
Examaining the sick child, the medical people did not notice mom & dad slip away, abandoning their daughter. Said to one another she was in good hands. Afraid they themselves would be caught by police as ‘illegals’
Five year old Brown Rice was admitted – spent 13 days in hospital. Alone first two days & nights in the charity children’s ward. A nighttime nurse, a who lives in Klong Toey lady noticed the lonely little girl. Knew about us at Mercy Centre – made the all important phone call. Our most fabulous house mom packed her tooth brush, grabbed an old teddy bear, abandoned like Miss Brown Rice – for a friend - & spent all those days & nights with Miss Brown Rice. She and Teddy immediately fell in love with each other.
Thirteen hospital days the first time, plus a couple more times in these past four months Petrol Station five year old girls who grow up sleeping nights on petrol station pavement without a mommy to hold them do not do well. But if you love them a lot and take good Care of them, they get well. And they graduate from kindergarten three.
Next week here at Mercy Centre, Miss Brown Rice will graduate from kindergarten 3 with her class. She has a home. We love her, & ask you to love her – to love all our children.
Next week at our annual Kindergarten graduation, I wish you could be here. Stand beside me, & our Director Ms Usanee, & stand beside our proud graduate Miss Brown Rice together with her two hundred classmates from our seventeen slum kindergartens.
