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Goodbye Grandmother

BillieBoy
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BillieBoy

BillieBoy

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My Grandmother suffers no more, she has attained her Nirvana.

 

Born in 1918 in the south of Vietnam, with a French education, unheard of in those days, she trained as a naturopathic nurse; she could speak and write in seven different languages. When she married my surgeon grandfather they owned and operated a 40 bed hospital. Even before the arrival of Americans in Vietnam it was a warring country. From communist China to the north, French and Japanese occupations in the 40’s and 50’s; my grandmother saw many crimes against humanity. She had 8 children; 7 boys and my mother. Several sons were lost to various wars. Through it all she maintained her spiritual quest to end human suffering.

 

My mother tells stories of when she was a child; people would line up outside their family compound leaving gifts of rice, live chickens and pigs because often my grandparents treated them for no charge and they wanted to show their gratitude with what they could. Later when Saigon fell, my family had to take refuge in the jungle to avoid persecution from the communist government. For one year, and thanks to my grandmother’s knowledge of herbs and roots, they were able to survive until their escape on a boat to an island off of Kuala Lumpur. Even after surviving multiple pirate attacks and conditions on the South China Sea that most of us can not even comprehend, my grandmother was always grateful and never resentful.

 

She literally never hurt a fly or had an unkind bone in her body. She was what people of all religions only hoped to attain in her grace. She never had an unkind word to say about anyone, even about those who humiliated her most. She could cook like there was no tomorrow. She was even the mid-wife to her first great, great grandbaby.

 

Thank you for letting me share just a small fragment of what an incredible woman she was and will always be in my memories.

 

Con yêu Bà ngoai. Yên giấc nghìn thu!

I love you, my mother's mother; have serenity in the sleep that knows no breaking.

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Ibbygirl

Ibbygirl

Posted
Posted
My Grandmother suffers no more, she has attained her Nirvana.

 

Born in 1918 in the south of Vietnam, with a French education, unheard of in those days, she trained as a naturopathic nurse; she could speak and write in seven different languages. When she married my surgeon grandfather they owned and operated a 40 bed hospital. Even before the arrival of Americans in Vietnam it was a warring country. From communist China to the north, French and Japanese occupations in the 40’s and 50’s; my grandmother saw many crimes against humanity. She had 8 children; 7 boys and my mother. Several sons were lost to various wars. Through it all she maintained her spiritual quest to end human suffering.

 

My mother tells stories of when she was a child; people would line up outside their family compound leaving gifts of rice, live chickens and pigs because often my grandparents treated them for no charge and they wanted to show their gratitude with what they could. Later when Saigon fell, my family had to take refuge in the jungle to avoid persecution from the communist government. For one year, and thanks to my grandmother’s knowledge of herbs and roots, they were able to survive until their escape on a boat to an island off of Kuala Lumpur. Even after surviving multiple pirate attacks and conditions on the South China Sea that most of us can not even comprehend, my grandmother was always grateful and never resentful.

 

She literally never hurt a fly or had an unkind bone in her body. She was what people of all religions only hoped to attain in her grace. She never had an unkind word to say about anyone, even about those who humiliated her most. She could cook like there was no tomorrow. She was even the mid-wife to her first great, great grandbaby.

 

Thank you for letting me share just a small fragment of what an incredible woman she was and will always be in my memories.

 

Con yêu Bà ngoai. Yên giấc nghìn thu!

I love you, my mother's mother; have serenity in the sleep that knows no breaking.

 

 

What a beautiful tribute to a beautiful lady. Thank you so much for sharing her with us too! May she rest in peace. :grouphug:

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