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Art of Living - Getting over a misfortune
Posted by: Khoi Vo From: Canada
My email address is: vongockhoi@hotmail.com
Here is my Story:
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A misfortune happened to a charming girl – student at the age of eighteen, Diem Ngoc Nguyen: Once she got a bad cold ,and had to be hospitalized at Hue Hospital, Vietnam. Her sciatic nerve was injected by a medical student even if he did not do it on purpose, and her legs have been completely paralyzed since then. She had to lie in the hospital without move for many months. She has become a handicap since she was very young. Her wishes, ambitions and so forth of her life were ended by a fate- injection. For Ngoc Diem it was an extremely terrible event. Even if her parents had sold everything in their house for her treatment, but their efforts were in vain: Her legs were smaller and smaller because she had to suffer from muscular atrophy. They became complete useless.. After leaving the hospital, she had to begin to practise walking on a pair of crutches. All her steps were her extraordinary efforts to fight against her hurt which bit every cell of her body. Her falls were too many to count: They crushed her head,bruized her face, twisted her arms and so on, but she did her best to stand up with extremely acute pain. It took Ngoc Diem a long time and much energy to subdue her pair of crutches. Next , thanks to her teachers’ and friends’ mobilization, as well as her parents’ special encouragement, she kept on going to school. After four years, she got a graduation from Hue University: Bachelor of excellent English.. Yet in her situation how could she apply for a job? She knew that she could not live at her parents’ expense her lifetime, so she planned a concrete way for her future: She would become an English – teacher, translator, and interpreter. From this realization she tried to improve her English level and Vietnamese literature better for teaching and translation. Many students wanted to test her level so they came to her house to learn. After a short time of learning, she was transmitted by her students. Soon her house where she was living with her parents was always full of students. In accordance with her speech: Up to now her students have been over two thousand. Among them: Bachelors, Masters of Arts of English.. From her unlucky fate, she is with the other handicaps with her heart and soul (sympathizes with the unlucky). She says,“Anyway I am luckier than the others because I can work, and earn money to make my living by myself while there are so many people who are unluckier than I am !” So she does her best to help them. A special concrete example: In 1997 with a membership of the Red Cross Association of Nha Trang City, Viet Nam, she got in touch with” Hope Haven International Ministries” directly, (a Charitable Organization in the United States), she asked this Organization for over one hundred wheel chairs to help handicaps in Khanh Hoa Province, Viet Nam. In accordance with her statement: At first, she was invited to be translator for this charitable Organization “ Wheels for Humanity” when they came to work in Khanh Hoa (wheel chair distribution). After knowing this Mission’s purpose: Investigating the handicaps’ situations to list wheel chair distribution, Ngoc Diem was extremely enthusiastic. In accordance with the Mission’s instruction, she had already come to many addresses where there were objects who needed wheel – chairs to help them make their papers, forms. It was a task for a handicap like Ngoc Diem: She rented a tricycle (cyclo), and ploughed a lonely furrow everywhere: From winding lanes at Dong De to extremely deep nooks and crannies at Binh Tan to look for families which had suitable standard: Handicaps such as: poor, lame of one leg, completely paralyzed (legs) who could not walk. After instructing them to complete their papers, she translated them from Vietnamese into English .Next, a lot of handicaps who were too poor to afford theirs papers, she helped them with her own money she earned by teaching and translation send their applications to the U.S.A “ Hope Haven International Ministries”, a charitable Organization in the United States “ Wheels for Humanity”. Reckoning: An application cost about 20,000 VND.. Later over 100 wheel chairs were sent, and distributed to the handicaps. Each wheel chair costs: nearly two million VND. This was a present for the unlucky that they did not dare to long for all their lives. Thanks to the wheel chairs, many unlucky people have changed their lives. They make their living by themselves in peddling lottery tickets, newspapers, cigarettes, post-cards and so forth. Many disabled persons have been able to go out under the sunshine since they got the wheel chairs. They are sincere to thank everybody. They thank Ngoc Diem especially: Those days she not only did not earn money from teaching or translation, but also general expenses for tricycle rent, papers, stamps, and so on cost her so much as her sum of money she earned income in a month . We can not value her human feeling unless we see her, and know how hard she walks on her crutches ! She states, “I am so happy to bring happiness and delights to everyone. For me one’s life is meaning when one makes the others happy, and on the contrary one’s life is unmeaning when one makes the others unhappy. So whenever I make the others happy, I myself feel happy, too because I consider the others’ happiness is mine. As a handicap, so I sympathize with whom who have the same fates. This is why I love them as myself, and how honored I am to forget myself for them because “The consecration of a whole life to single object’”.“He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he who loses his courage loses all”,” All men have a mind which cannot bear to see the sufferings of others”,”An optimist sees an opportunity in everycalamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in everyopportunity”,”Life is measured by thought and action, not by time”, “Where there is a will there is a way”. Ngoc Diem says with her glistening eyes, and her face brightens up with a smile while she is telling this story.. Besides, Ngoc Diem is a positive member of the Association for Vietnamese handicapped children’s relief of Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam.. The Red Cross Association of Nha Trang City ,Vietnam, The Vietnamese Blind’s Association of Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam, and she has already passed the examination as a translator for “ Medecins San Frontieres” Belgium. “Doctors without Borders” a charitable clinic of Belgium.. She is willing to be present whenever she is needed. Her main work is: following the International Charitable Associations to translate and interpret documents. She works as a membership, it means she is not paid for her work, or she gets a symbolic pay. For all of these Organizations’ Associations” are so poor, but the number of helped and needed handicaps is extremely great.. Instead of have her dresses and skirts sewn, in her rare spare time, Ngoc Diem do them to save money to buy gifts for offering to orphans in her city on holidays in order to relieve sufferance of these pitiful children .She designs finical and elaborate dresses as well as skirts by herself. Of course Ngoc Diem sews them by hands. As to her, it is a helpful entertainment after devoting herself to her classes for many hours. It is a delight in her busy life.. Many years have already passed, but a smile is always on her lips. This is how Ngoc Diem has got over her unlucky fate!. Phuong Nga, journalist.. SCIENCE and LIFE Magazine No 81. Translated from Vietnamese into English by Ngoc Diem.
(Contact the translator in Vietnam at ngocdiem41@yahoo.com)
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This story was processed at: Monday, July 22, 2002 at 12:50:36 (EDT)
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