Every day at around 6pm, on National Highway 13 (Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) bustling with people, Ms. Vu Thi Nga (65 years old, living in Binh Thanh District), a small and thin woman, continuously serves customers who come to eat vermicelli soup with crab.
"Bear" the whole family
For the past 15 years, Mrs. Nga has been selling beef noodle soup, broken rice, and crab noodle soup. Next to the steaming hot pot of broth, pork, vegetables, and bean sprouts are arranged in a very neat and clean glass cabinet. Customers who come to eat all affectionately call her "Grandma!". She shared that she thought that when she was old, her children would take care of her, but her children have all gone to work far away, and life is full of difficulties.
Mrs. Nga worked hard to raise 3 grandchildren.
So she had to earn money to raise her three grandchildren. Because she did not have enough money, her two older grandchildren had to drop out of school to find a way to help her, and her youngest grandchild is now in 7th grade. "Try to stick with the job of selling vermicelli soup to raise your grandchildren, work as long as you can. If you don't send them to school, they will suffer even more," she said softly.
When we arrived, Mrs. Nga and her two nieces were working continuously so that customers would not have to wait long. The price of a bowl of vermicelli soup with crab soup is 30,000 VND.
Many customers, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga - the person who lent Ms. Nga the space, came out to help sell.
Tran Minh Thuan (21 years old, student at Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport) shared: "She sells crab noodle soup that is affordable, so I always support her. The crab noodle soup she cooks is very tasty and delicious. Knowing her family situation, I often invite my friends to come and support her."
Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga (59 years old, Binh Thanh District) felt sorry for her poor grandmother so she lent her a space. On busy days, she also helped her grandmother and her grandchild sell. "Seeing that no one would rent to her and she was chased away wherever she sold, I felt sorry for her and lent her a space to sell to get by. She is honest and has to raise her grandchild alone, I feel sorry for her."
A bowl of vermicelli soup with crab soup costs 30,000 VND.
"I am poor but my heart is not poor!"
Many times when it rains and storms, she just quickly runs to a shelter and then continues selling. After finishing her goods, she returns home to take care of her grandchildren, cleans the house, rests for a few hours and then continues to take care of her vermicelli soup stall, "the family's bread".
Many customers come to eat because they sympathize with the grandmother and grandchildren's situation.
According to her, her life was also full of hardships. 6 months ago, when she had saved up some capital, she rented a room on Nguyen Xi Street (Binh Thanh District), unfortunately a fire broke out and all her belongings were burned. "Back then, it was very difficult, if we calculate 10 parts of the difficulty, it is 9 parts less difficult now. I went to sell in many places but people said I was unlucky so they chased me away. Luckily, there was an uncle and aunt on this street who saw my difficult situation and lent me a space to sell vermicelli soup. They helped me and were very grateful, if they hadn't helped, my grandmother and I wouldn't be sitting like this now."
She said that every day at 6am she gets up to go to the market and prepare the ingredients. She prioritizes fresh ingredients, and after processing them, she cooks them immediately to keep them fresh. She said that she sells them so that customers will come back to buy, not just sell them once and then they leave. For those in difficult circumstances, she always adds meat and sausage without hesitation. "I don't have money to donate, but I have a heart. I use my job to sell cheaply so that people can have something to eat. I may be poor, but my heart is not poor," she said.
After school, the niece went to the shop to help her grandmother sell noodles.
Her crab noodle soup is sold in the evening from 6pm to 1am. If she is too tired, she sits on a chair and takes a nap, selling whenever someone comes to buy, regardless of day or night. Mr. Vo Van Non (55 years old, Hoc Mon District) is a "regular customer" of Ms. Nga. He has been stopping by her shop to eat when delivering goods in this area for 4 years. "She sells delicious, quality food that is affordable. When I learned about her situation, even though it is not very convenient, I still regularly stop by to buy 3-4 times a week, as a way to support her because I find her situation so pitiful!", Mr. Non said.
Ms. Truong Thanh Vy (17 years old, granddaughter of Mrs. Nga) shared that because of poverty, last year she decided to drop out of school to help her grandmother sell vermicelli. "I love my grandmother so much, she is the one who takes care of everything for me. I hope she sells a lot so she can have money to rent a space so she won't be afraid of the rain anymore, because every time it rains, my grandmother and I have to run around so hard." For Mrs. Nga, this vermicelli stall is the asset of her entire life. At her old age, her only wish is to live a healthy life to continue earning a living to raise her grandchildren.
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