Paralytic girl writes poetry by mouth | Look At Vietnam

Paralytic girl writes poetry by mouth

May 5, 2012

LookAtVietnam – In a small house in Tam Duong district of Vinh Phuc Province, a girl is passionately fond of writing by a pen in her mouth. That girl is Nguyen Thi Hong.

Hong’s mother, Ms. Tran Thi Man, said that Hong was born normally like other babies but the more she grew, the more her limbs were contracted.
Her parents brought the child to many hospitals and herbalists, but doctors could not cure the disease. The poor family got poorer.
Their main food was rice mixed with cassava. Man’s fifth child died after being poisoned by cassava. Her husband died after that. Her eldest daughter named Van left family at the age of 14, to work to help her family. Letters were the means of communications between Van and her family.

Hong, who is paralytic, loved Van very much. She saved every dong to buy papers and stamps to write to her sister. At first, she asked others to write for her but after a time, she was afraid of disturbing you. Hong decided to practice writing.
For Hong, learning reading and particularly writing was very hard. It was difficult to keep a pen by mouth. It was much more difficult to write. But the girl could do that tough task after over a year.
At present, Hong can not only write but also write poet and draw paintings by her mouth. She can also thread a needle and sew by her mouth.
The girl has a great passion for literature. That passion was lighted up after a friend read a poem for her. The poem was like a story about Hong’s life. Since then, Hong has written poems. She wrote day and night, like tomorrow will never come again. Every feeling was written out.
Hong’s friend, named Thoa, said: “I did not like poems but one day when I went to see Hong, I saw she was writing something. I was curious and asked her to let me read it. The more I read, the more I liked her poem. I could not imagine that my friend could write such a great and sensational poem.”

Hong has written nearly 400 poems and some of them were posted on newspapers. She desires to print a collection of poems, but this is a dream because she receives social welfares of VND500,000 ($25) a month, which is not enough for food and medicines.
Hong’s biggest wish is saving money to tile the yard of her house to enable her old mother to walk easily.
Hong currently lives with her mother. Her sisters and brothers have had their own families. They are poor so they can help Hong and her mother.
Le Ha