Mother's Day Letter to all
18 August 2023
Dear everybody
Thailand Mother’s Day weekend & all of our Mercy Centre kids/kindergarten kids dressed up - fancy party ‘prancing/dancing beautiful’ - you know…second hand best high class rags.
Our fabulous ‘of an age’ sewing lady sews up the rips & patches, (we washed all the donated stuff twice: you know, the donated throw-aways) and some of the used stuff - washed, pressed & ironed are pretty good look’n rags) for our dance/music kids party this morning.
But even the best used clothes, patched & cleaned, ‘can’t stand in’- take the place of a missing mom. Even a wildflower picked by a slum pathway - borrowed from a shrine - and placed wherever your momma dumped you that horrible day. Where she left you standing alone, telling you “I’ll be right back. You wait right here.” In front of an abandoned building. Along the railway tracks - wherever…
But horror of horrors, over half - almost fifty kids - came alone to our party; no mom in sight anywhere. In fact, no mom on the planet. Really. None at all.
My eyes filled with tears - so many of our kids; kindergarten sized - especially at that age really hurt without a mom to hug, give a blossom to - a wild weed really, but pretty, also like an orphan - growing alone, along the slum pathway.
But you make do with what you can. Like our nearly six-year-old Miss Kao Fang (Brown Rice) not the prettiest name on the chart, but who cares. She is natures’ beauty; untouched - never heard of cosmetics, no perfume, no powder, no none at all, but beautiful Thai-Lao complexion. Total wardrobe: one set of clothing (that which she is wearing) pretty, like you would want her to be. Named after a single solitary rice stalk - sturdy - in a field alone.
She saw ‘my sniffles’ and told me she barely remembers her Lao mom abandoning her, kiss her goodbye, then get in a boat, crossing the river back into her home in Laos. Her mom saying “I can’t take the cruelty from your father anymore, he made me HIV/AIDS sick & I have no way to care for you except to beg on the streets of my hometown in Laos, & I am afraid you will become sick as I am because we have no medicine. If I leave you - like that stalk of brown rice, you will not die, the angels will find you & get you medicine - and make you healthy. I named you Kao Fang - and that’s all I can give you is your name & my love. Your name came to me as a dream when you were born, alone there along that abandoned roadside. But I was strong then, and you were a strong and healthy baby.”
“My beloved daughter, we shall probably never meet again. I, your momma, am already sick. But I shall die, knowing you, my baby, my ‘brown rice’ are well & cared for, like my dream.” When she was nearly five.
To finish for today - Mother’s Day weekend. Miss Kao Fang, brown rice - single stalk – solitary, was found by a policeman, sleeping along the riverbank. First thing she said: “I’m hungry” … she is nearly six years old - never been to school - teachers now allowing her to hold pencil according to… as she likes… not forcing by the way this or that finger etc. Never wore shoes - never had any new clothes - liked by other kids - small in size...under-fed.
Abused … abandoned more than abused - no not sexually abused … but beat up … bruised … by dad who is dying of HIV/AIDS of the brain, never took his medicine - now too late…
Gun shy - nearly six years of age… not under-nourished - but certainly never had enough to eat to fill her tummy. Skin… like one big mosquito bite…but much better even in a few days, with soap and water. Somehow avoided lice & fleas - great girl - sleeps well on the pavement - pillows are strange objects…
Doesn’t like stray dogs, although they like her - guard her… automatically it seems when anyone comes around - keeps herself clean - washes herself in the clothes she wears, which is all she owns, in any available faucet.
All for now - Blessings to all of you for Mother’s Day here in Thailand & everywhere. Our Miss Brown Rice is doing fabulous. You should come and meet her when you are in town.
Prayers & respect and always
Thailand Mother’s Day weekend & all of our Mercy Centre kids/kindergarten kids dressed up - fancy party ‘prancing/dancing beautiful’ - you know…second hand best high class rags.
Our fabulous ‘of an age’ sewing lady sews up the rips & patches, (we washed all the donated stuff twice: you know, the donated throw-aways) and some of the used stuff - washed, pressed & ironed are pretty good look’n rags) for our dance/music kids party this morning.
But even the best used clothes, patched & cleaned, ‘can’t stand in’- take the place of a missing mom. Even a wildflower picked by a slum pathway - borrowed from a shrine - and placed wherever your momma dumped you that horrible day. Where she left you standing alone, telling you “I’ll be right back. You wait right here.” In front of an abandoned building. Along the railway tracks - wherever…
But horror of horrors, over half - almost fifty kids - came alone to our party; no mom in sight anywhere. In fact, no mom on the planet. Really. None at all.
My eyes filled with tears - so many of our kids; kindergarten sized - especially at that age really hurt without a mom to hug, give a blossom to - a wild weed really, but pretty, also like an orphan - growing alone, along the slum pathway.
But you make do with what you can. Like our nearly six-year-old Miss Kao Fang (Brown Rice) not the prettiest name on the chart, but who cares. She is natures’ beauty; untouched - never heard of cosmetics, no perfume, no powder, no none at all, but beautiful Thai-Lao complexion. Total wardrobe: one set of clothing (that which she is wearing) pretty, like you would want her to be. Named after a single solitary rice stalk - sturdy - in a field alone.
She saw ‘my sniffles’ and told me she barely remembers her Lao mom abandoning her, kiss her goodbye, then get in a boat, crossing the river back into her home in Laos. Her mom saying “I can’t take the cruelty from your father anymore, he made me HIV/AIDS sick & I have no way to care for you except to beg on the streets of my hometown in Laos, & I am afraid you will become sick as I am because we have no medicine. If I leave you - like that stalk of brown rice, you will not die, the angels will find you & get you medicine - and make you healthy. I named you Kao Fang - and that’s all I can give you is your name & my love. Your name came to me as a dream when you were born, alone there along that abandoned roadside. But I was strong then, and you were a strong and healthy baby.”
“My beloved daughter, we shall probably never meet again. I, your momma, am already sick. But I shall die, knowing you, my baby, my ‘brown rice’ are well & cared for, like my dream.” When she was nearly five.
To finish for today - Mother’s Day weekend. Miss Kao Fang, brown rice - single stalk – solitary, was found by a policeman, sleeping along the riverbank. First thing she said: “I’m hungry” … she is nearly six years old - never been to school - teachers now allowing her to hold pencil according to… as she likes… not forcing by the way this or that finger etc. Never wore shoes - never had any new clothes - liked by other kids - small in size...under-fed.
Abused … abandoned more than abused - no not sexually abused … but beat up … bruised … by dad who is dying of HIV/AIDS of the brain, never took his medicine - now too late…
Gun shy - nearly six years of age… not under-nourished - but certainly never had enough to eat to fill her tummy. Skin… like one big mosquito bite…but much better even in a few days, with soap and water. Somehow avoided lice & fleas - great girl - sleeps well on the pavement - pillows are strange objects…
Doesn’t like stray dogs, although they like her - guard her… automatically it seems when anyone comes around - keeps herself clean - washes herself in the clothes she wears, which is all she owns, in any available faucet.
All for now - Blessings to all of you for Mother’s Day here in Thailand & everywhere. Our Miss Brown Rice is doing fabulous. You should come and meet her when you are in town.
Prayers & respect and always
