Huyen's parents are wounded war veterans who survived from all those fierce battles around the former DMZ. After the war they returned to Mai Loc, resettled in the area that they both knew very well and did farm work for a living. Their first two sons were born in 1974 and 1976; then came the two daughters: Huyen was born in 1981 and her youngest sister was born in 1985.
The unexpected thing happened in 1983 when Huyen was only two years old and was the smallest sibling in the family. This was a difficult time for Huyen�s parents: having to raise three young children they found it impossible to make ends meet. Thus, apart from farm work, they also did all other kinds of work for a profit. The children often stayed at home alone: the older looked after the younger, played any games they could create, with any toys they found� Everyone took it for granted that it was the way things were.
View of Huyen's Homeland
Huyen was playing on her own in the front yard when her 9 year-old-brother arrived home. He had just wandered around the village with his neighboring boys. The brother came and sat down next to Huyen, pulling out from his pant pockets some "toys" he'd just found. It was a handful of propellants and some short, tiny copper tubes. The boy had already known what he could play with the propellants; however, it was the first time he found those shining tiny tubes. He picked one up to examine, then he decided to break open one of the tubes to see what was the content inside. Huyen was focusing on her own girly thing, paying no attention at what her brother was doing next to her. The boy grasped a rock and stroke its sharp edge into the tube. The impact deformed the tube but could not break open the copper casing. The boy made the second strike. This time it was not the outside force but the blast from the content inside that broke open the casing together with an explosion. Neither of the two kids heard the explosion for they were too close to the detonation point, but the boy felt something happened: at first, he felt a strange force pushed the rock backward, then he felt something at his ankle. All those strange feelings lasted about half a second and then a wave of pain spread over his entire body. He turned to his younger sibling and saw she was covering her face tight with her hands. The boy was too shocked to make any sound but the little girl started screaming out loud. It were the neighbors who heard the explosion rushed up to help and ran to find their parents to deliver the bad news�
Huyen was too young to memorize the beautiful surrounding scenes of her homeland. She was unable to go to school as her eye capacity could only help her to tell day from night. As time passed by, Huyen became acquaintance with her disability and learned how to do simple things for herself. In 1998, 15 years after the accident, Huyen left her village for Dong Ha town where she learned Braille at the Provincial Association for the Blind. Then she was selected to send up to Ha Noi for a 3 months training course to be a Braille instructor. Huyen completed the course successfully and came back to the Association. She devoted her time and energy in passing on the knowledge for others. During this time, Huyen spent her free time learning how to make brooms, incense sticks and tooth picks at the vocational training courses organized for the blinds.
Late of 2000, The Cam Lo District�s Blind Association invited Huyen to deliver a Braille course for its members. Among her blind students there was a guy named THIEN.
As you may recall, THIEN is the name of the groom. Thus, stay with us for the next chapter: THE GROOM'S STORY
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