With her husband gone, no children, no relatives, the life of Ms. Nguyen Thi Ieng (Thuong Phuc commune, Hanoi's inner city) is a series of days of mourning thanks to the care of neighbors and the fragile determination of old age.
The simple, old, degraded house where Ms. Ieng lives was built many years ago, with patched roofs, peeling walls, and cracked areas. On days of heavy rain, the water leaked into the floor, Mrs. Ieng dived and placed a pot to collect water in the dark space of the forest - where the light had not existed for her for many years.
When she was young, Ms. Ieng participated in the local militia, contributing to the difficult years. However, after leaving the army, her livelihood was mainly associated with freelance and unstable work. " those days were good, there were village and commune affairs that I enthusiastically participated in," Ms. Ieng shared.
Mrs. Ieng's husband has been deceased for more than 20 years, since then, she has lived a life of deprivation alone, without children. Old age leads to serious health decline, Ms. Ieng also has heart disease, frequent angina, and fatigue. The toothbrush has almost completely fallen off, Ms. Ieng has a long-growing skin tumor that makes it extremely difficult to eat, causing prolonged pain but no treatment conditions.
According to Ms. Ieng, the biggest incident happened to her in 2019, when the COVID-19 pandemic started to break out. At that time, her eyes began to blur. Due to difficult circumstances and no money for medical examination, his vision has worsened. After that, her life was associated with darkness. "At first, I was seeing it blurred, then it got dark, and now I can't see anything anymore," Ms. Ieng said sadly.
When she got old and could no longer be healthy enough to work hard, Mrs. Ieng could only pick grass and strip leaves for the pagoda near her home. No fixed income at work. She sweeps leaves mainly to have a place to travel and move and hopes to receive sympathy from customers from all over the world.
"I scan leaves for the pagoda, every day when there are guests coming to the festival, people are kind and give me a few tens of thousands of dong. Without customers, I have no money to live on, Ms. Ieng shared.
Ms. Ieng's main source of income is currently a social allowance of 700,000 VND/month. That small amount of money was just enough for her to buy some rice and fish sauce to last all day. Meals are usually just thin porridge and boiled vegetables. When a heart disease recurred or a tumor in her mouth was in pain, she could only lie on her stomach because she did not dare to think about going to the hospital. Not to mention, due to loss of vision, every activity of Mrs. Ieng became extremely difficult, from cooking, traveling to sweeping the pagoda leaves, everything had to be stepped on foot. Once she tripped and fell, she was scratched but had to deal with it herself because there were no relatives by her side.
The surrounding neighbor is a rare support for Ms. Ieng. Seeing her living alone and sick, many people occasionally brought rice bowls and vegetables to help clean the house.
Talking to Lao Dong reporter, Mr. Pham Anh Tuan - Head of Gia Khanh village, Thuong Phuc commune said that Ms. Ieng is a very difficult case, the whole village is concerned.
"Ms. Ieng has lived alone for a long time, her health is declining. Due to her old age and many diseases, especially blindness, she is almost unable to work. Currently, the main source of income depends only on social allowances and the help of surrounding people. The local government has paid attention and supported her under the conditions of permission, but in reality, these supports only help her overcome the current difficulties. To make Ms. Ieng's life more stable in the coming time, it is necessary to have more cooperation and sharing from the community," said Mr. Tuan.
Please send any help to LD25097 to the Golden Heart Charity Fund - 51 Hang Bo, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi. Account number (STK) 113000000758 at Vietinbank Hoan Kiem Branch, Hanoi; STK: 0021000303088 - at Vietcombank Hanoi Branch; STK: 12410001122556 - at BIDV Hoan Kiem Branch.
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