Sue Guiney's Introductory Post - contains important links
My Q and A with Dana Hui Lim author of Mother and the Tiger- A Memoir of the Killing Fields. - essential background information
Toots, like all the work shop participants, is just starting to learn English. Unlike European languages, the structure and grammer of the Khmer language does not share Latin roots with English, making it very hard to master. Of course the reverse is also true.
My thanks to Toots, a pen name to protect her privacy, for allowing me to share this very moving story with my readers.
"Redemption of the Man"
by Toots
Five years ago there was a small village that has a lot of people living in it. But in the village was one family which was very poor. They had many children. The husband did not have a job. He was always fighting with his wife for money to buy wine to drink with a friend every day. Their life was very hard. They had six children.
The woman was very afraid of the husband. The woman wanted to run away and took her six children. They went to their aunt’s house in Phnom Penh. The aunt wanted to know about the husband and asked the woman about her husband and what he did with her and her children. The aunt got very angry. She wanted to kill the man. The aunt said: “you
can stay here, when he comes here, I will kill him. You don’t have to be afraid.”
Two weeks later the man was coming to Phnom Penh. He wanted to say sorry to the aunt, but the aunt didn’t forgive him. The aunt spoke with the woman, the woman said: “I have pity for him because I know that he has changed his attitude and that he doesn’t drink wine anymore.” One son came to the mother and said “I want to have a father. Mother where is my
father?” The mother didn’t say anything.
One time, the father came again and he prayed to the aunt and the mother to forgive him. Then they forgave him and the family went back with the father. Now they live happily ever after and the children can go to school. The man has a job and he has a lot of money. Last year he went to build a big house for the family.
Toots, age 15 - we have no bio data on this author.
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