New Hue University Student Remembers the Day His Mother Collapsed at the School Gate, So He Refused to Quit

Nguyễn Văn Mạnh has reached the gates of Hue University’s School of Law 11 years after his mother collapsed outside his primary school while taking him to class.

Mạnh was six years old in late 2014. He had just climbed off his mother’s motorbike when his 42-year-old mother suddenly fell. Relatives said she had suffered a stroke. He was too young to understand that she would never take him to school again.

Mạnh was born without knowing his father. After his mother died, he lived with his 93-year-old grandmother, Hồ Thị Bình, his uncle and other relatives. The family faced another loss immediately: Mạnh’s maternal uncle, who was being treated for cancer, also died. The two funerals took place one after another.

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In her final moments, my mother still wanted to take me to school. If I quit school, I would be letting my mother down and wasting my grandmother’s and everyone else’s efforts to help me.

His grandmother took responsibility for his meals, clothes and schooling as she grew older. Mạnh remembers crying at night because he missed his mother, while his grandmother worried about caring for him despite her age. The household depended largely on social assistance and support from aunts and neighbors.

Mạnh considered quitting school when he entered secondary school. He did not want to stop learning, but thought working would reduce the burden on his grandmother. Then he remembered that a relative had offered to take him to school on the day his mother died, but she had insisted on taking him herself. “In her final moments, my mother still wanted to take me to school,” he thought. “If I quit school, I would be letting my mother down and wasting my grandmother’s and everyone else’s efforts to help me.” He stayed in school and earned good or very good academic results throughout three years of high school. He now cares for his grandmother at their small home while beginning a new chapter at university.

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In the days after my daughter died, he would lie awake crying because he missed his mother. I felt sorry for him and worried because I was already old.