Thanks to the 0 dong train ticket, I can go home for Tet
After a long train journey from Binh Duong to Ha Tinh on the evening of January 23, Ms. Tran Thi Tuyet (41 years old) was seasick and exhausted. However, when she got off at Huong Pho station (Huong Khe town), she met her relatives and was welcomed home by them. Ms. Tuyet was so happy that she forgot her fatigue.
Ms. Tuyet is married and has 2 children, the older one is in 11th grade this year, the younger one is in 3rd grade. Her husband died in an accident 9 years ago. As a single mother working as a factory worker with a meager salary, Ms. Tuyet has had to send her 2 children to her parents in her hometown to help take care of them.
Also because of the difficulties, for the past 3 Tet holidays, Ms. Tuyet did not return home to save some money to send home for her family to celebrate Tet.
“This year, thanks to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor giving me a pair of free round-trip train tickets, I was able to return home to reunite and celebrate Tet with my family. If I hadn’t been given the tickets, I wouldn’t have dared to return even though I miss my parents and children very much and really want to return,” Ms. Tuyet emotionally shared.
According to Ms. Tuyet, a round-trip train ticket costs more than 4 million VND, a huge amount of money for her.
Happy reunion
Ms. Tuyet shared that last night, when she got home, everyone was very happy and moved. After a warm dinner, happy conversations, and heart-to-heart talks with relatives, when going to bed, her two children fought over hugging their mother to sleep, fought over telling their mother about their studies, getting good grades, and how they were waiting for their mother to come home...
Although she was tired from the long journey, Ms. Tuyet was so happy that she didn't feel sleepy anymore and stayed up late to talk with her children.
Ms. Tuyet said that this Tet holiday, she did not receive her salary, only brought home 7 million VND in bonus, along with a Tet gift of cakes and candies with 300,000 VND from the Trade Union organization.
“My grandparents are old in the countryside and don’t earn any income. He is also sick and went to the city for a check-up early this morning. I don’t have much money to bring back, so I try to spend sparingly, buy each of them a new outfit, and do simple shopping. Being reunited is fun, but shopping is never enough,” Tuyet confided.
Ms. Tuyet said that on January 5, she will board a train to Binh Duong so that from the 8th, the company can start operating again. She hopes that in the new year, the company will have better production and business so that the workers can have better income, so that she can save a little bit to send back home every month to her grandparents to feed and educate her grandchildren.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Kien (65 years old) - Tuyet's mother - shared: "A few years ago, she did not come home for Tet, I was very sad. The most painful thing was that the two young grandchildren were waiting for their mother to come back. This year, I thought she would not come back either. But she is here, my family is very happy. I hope that in the coming Tet, the Union will also give tickets to workers in difficult circumstances so that she can come home for Tet to reunite with her family like this year."
