A dry "Crack!" sound rang out. The whole group cheered and teased the little girl for being so slow. Trang was bewildered, her body was hot and cold, sweat was pouring down her back, bent like the letter C. The pain suddenly came and tore her tiny body apart. Huh? What's going on? When she got home, Trang found out that her five fingers had just been broken. Her parents drove her straight to Saigon, that was the first time she heard of the strange disease "Broken Bone".
When she was born, Trang was also a normal child. A few months old, that day when her mother picked her up, she saw that her legs were limp. She was terrified, both legs were broken. Medicine at that time was not yet developed, the doctor in the province looked at the child's crooked spine, bulging eyes, protruding jaw, and limp limbs, diagnosed her with Agent Orange, and told her to monitor her closely. She grew up, her immature mind only thought that she was sick, that she couldn't walk. She didn't clearly feel what misfortune was, she was innocent like any other little girl. After learning the name of the disease, at the age of six, Trang realized how cruel life was.
The name "brittle bone disease" sounds fancy, but it is an extremely terrible chromosomal mutation. Mild cases cause weak limbs, moderate cases cause bones and joints to break easily and are difficult to heal, but severe cases cause the whole body to shrink, deformed appearance, and a fragile physique like a strand of hair. Trang has the most severe form. She has lost the ability to walk, her spine is crooked, she cannot sit for long, and cannot move normally. Trang cannot remember how many times she has broken bones in her life, almost every bone has been broken. The pain is excruciating, like a herd of wild buffalo trampling over her. The most terrible cases are those of broken thigh bones, the pain torments her for five or six months. Even a strong sneeze can break a rib. The pains continue to overwhelm her small body, so much so that Trang gradually finds broken bones as normal as breathing and eating. But what is physical pain compared to mental pain? People from nowhere came to whisper and look at the girl with a strange illness, like looking at a monkey in a zoo. Some people even pointed and said that her parents must have been evil and immoral to give birth to such a child. What crime did Trang commit to deserve this? While the children in the neighborhood were rushing to school, she lay at home holding her broken arm after her leg had just healed. She felt so useless, causing her family to suffer, working so hard to raise a disabled child like her.
God robbed me of all my rights to be a normal human being, but God rewarded me with an intelligent mind and bright optimism. Trang read a lot of books, especially inspirational books, and gradually understood the root of suffering. People say that to attain enlightenment, one must go through all joy, anger, love, hate, greed, anger, and ignorance. Perhaps I have dragged my small, paralyzed body through most of the dark abyss of life. The knowledge and words from books and newspapers helped me overcome the negative storm. At the age of ten, I no longer felt self-conscious and inferior. I ignored the gossip and the contemptuous looks. I overcame the physical pain of each broken bone like a small boat climbing over big waves. I also nurtured a bright heart wanting to live like a normal person, wanting to have value in life and not be a burden, while children my age were still carefree, not caring about the meaning of their lives...
Then, I met "legs".
Aunt Hai, a complete stranger. Trang's parents worked hard to raise their sick child, and did not have time to take care of her, so they asked her to be sent to Aunt Hai. Her aunt made incense and lived in the countryside, so she agreed to let her recuperate. Aunt Hai had no family, but was as gentle as a lump of earth, and took the sick child in and held him like a lump of gold. She became a nun, so her love was as vast as the sky and the sea. She bought a chair made of rubber, tied it to the back of her bicycle, and took her everywhere. She showed her the river, the ferry, the sky, the clouds, the fields, the gardens, and the beauty of human life, not that this life was only full of suffering and humiliation. Trang lived in the love of her mother in the countryside, nurturing in her heart a warm love.
That day, an older sister came to visit. She told me about her charity work, donating to help orphans, lonely elderly people, and poor terminally ill patients. She was busy with many things surrounding the urgent relief work… Little Trang, who was only ten years old at the time, spoke concisely, her eyes shining with confidence: "I'll go with you!"
After much resistance, worry, and torment from her family, the sickly child, full of illness, stuck in the back seat of a motorbike, followed Aunt Hai into the countryside to provide relief, to help her older sister. Aunt Hai did not know how to drive, so she asked someone to carry her and her younger sibling. She was afraid that her younger sibling would fall, so she carried her younger sibling all the way, her arms were tired but she still tried. People were bewildered, wondering how a child like this could participate in charity events? A child whose limbs could be broken by just a pothole on the road. She sat curled up like a teddy bear in the area of the delegates, visiting and giving gifts to the poor. Many people thought briefly, is this child more pitiful than me, yet she is helping me? The gifts donated by family and acquaintances were also small, usually a sum of money, a few kilos of rice, a box of instant noodles, but the image of a fragile child like a strand of hair going to provide relief was the most miraculous medicine flowing into the hearts of adults. The whole leaf covers the torn leaf, yet this tiny, crumpled leaf is still as green as jade. The green color spreads to the other yellowed leaves.
Trang traveled with her aunt Hai to do charity work for ten years. There was an accident, she fell off the bike, and heard a "crack" in her thigh bone. As soon as the bone healed, she sat on the bike and continued walking. The two of them traveled from one region to another, feeling the suffering of different lives. Suddenly, she felt that her life was still so beautiful. It seemed like she was helping others, and at the same time, helping herself heal her emotional wounds.
When Trang was twenty, her illness became severe. Although she really wanted to, she could not walk. Now she does charity work from afar, and started looking for something else to affirm her normal existence in this world. Everyone who grows up has to work to support themselves, and she was already grown up, so what should she do? Normal people have lofty dreams, but she only dreamed of being a normal person. She looked online and saw that people made beautiful paper flowers! The materials were cheap, the method was simple, and she could do it while sitting in one place. Trang hid it from her parents, saved up money to buy colored paper, scissors, and glue to try.
Only when I started did I realize how incredibly difficult it was. Picking up scissors, I was afraid of breaking my fingers while cutting paper. A simple task that anyone can do in a few seconds, cutting a piece of paper, took me fifteen minutes. My fingers were shaking, my joints ached, tears welled up, until I couldn’t take it anymore and had to let go of the scissors. Seeing the paper still intact, my heart felt like it was being torn into thousands of tiny pieces. Couldn’t I do something as simple as this child’s game?
I remembered my parents, my aunt Hai, the children on dialysis who were in excruciating pain on their hospital beds, the old men and women with cancer who were as thin as skeletons. I remembered many pairs of eyes, from big and round and clear to cloudy and white. And then, Trang picked up the scissors and continued working. After nearly four months, she had made a complete pot of paper roses, and sold them to an acquaintance for fifty thousand. The first money in her life that she had earned entirely by her own efforts!
The paper flowers sprouted one by one, with sweat and tears, with broken bones and with the resilience of a tiny girl from the West. Roses, chrysanthemums, sunflowers, lotuses, orchids, she could do them all! She was meticulous and polished, the flowers in the pots swayed in the wind and looked like real flowers, until people touched them and exclaimed: made of paper! She had a natural flair, looking at the flowers she could clearly see the lifeblood, the soul of the flower. She could feel the chlorophyll in the veins of the leaves, the fine hairs on the petals, the fading strokes of color, she breathed life into each work. The flowers Trang made became more and more complicated, she drew veins, trimmed, bent petals, colored. The flowers had pistils, sepals, branches, and tiny veins that looked real. The good news spread far and wide, people ordered flowers in droves. One day, there were so many orders, she cried tears of joy. The family renovated the front house to make a shop for her to sell. And the paper flower shop was born.
After a while, people suddenly saw her as a completely different person. Although she was still terminally ill, she became much more beautiful. Trang dressed stylishly, wore makeup when meeting customers, had a neat haircut and wore glasses. She played on social media, talked about her illness, and even made vlogs. Trang said that as a girl, she also had the right to be beautiful and have friends everywhere. She joined groups for the disabled, encouraging people to buy their handicrafts to help them make a living.
But the road was beautiful but not smooth. That day Trang saw an open wound on her aunt Hai's nose that would not heal. She felt guilty and asked her to go to the doctor. Afraid that her parents would worry, she hid it. Aunt Hai was a country girl and didn't know anything. She listened to her nephew and went to the city alone for a checkup. The doctor called and said that her aunt had skin cancer. Trang felt as if the sky was falling. What should she do now? Crying and staying awake all night, Trang read articles about skin cancer. She told herself that her aunt Hai had been her legs for so many years, now it was her turn to take care of her. If her leg was sick, her hand would take care of her. Although she and her aunt were two, they were like one. She had to help her. But how could she help? Who would take her to get a biopsy, a skin graft, and hospital? Who would encourage her through the pain? Who would show filial piety to help her?...
Then, as if by chance, good people suddenly appeared. Doctors, nurses, and caregivers at the hospital told each other about the girl with brittle bone disease taking care of her aunt with cancer. Volunteers, unknown to anyone, came to take care of her from start to finish, enthusiastically like they were their own flesh and blood. Some took care of her food, some took care of her accommodation, some took care of her paperwork and procedures. The surgery was successful, and when Aunt Hai returned home to see Trang, she learned that she had just been cured of cancer.
Once, a friend asked Trang, through so many painful stories that could knock down any strong person, have you ever thought about death? The little girl smiled as clearly as a glass flower: "No! Never!".
Rules:
Live beautifully with total prizes up to 448 million VND
With the theme Loving Heart, Warm Hands, the 3rd Beautiful Life contest is an attractive playground for young content creators. By contributing works expressed through various forms such as articles, photos, videos... with positive content, full of emotions and attractive, vivid presentation suitable for different platforms of Thanh Nien Newspaper.
Submission period: April 21 - October 31, 2023. In addition to the forms of memoirs, reports, notes, and short stories, this year the contest has expanded to include photos and videos on YouTube.
The 3rd Beautiful Living Contest of Thanh Nien Newspaper highlights community projects, volunteer journeys, good deeds of individuals, entrepreneurs, groups, companies, enterprises in society and especially young people in the current Gen Z generation, so there should be a separate contest category sponsored by ActionCOACH Vietnam. The appearance of guests who own works of art, literature, and young artists loved by young people also helps the theme of the contest spread strongly, creating sympathy among young people.
About the contest entries: Authors can participate in the form of memoirs, reports, notes, reflecting real stories, real events and must have accompanying character images. The article must express the content about a character/group that has taken beautiful, practical actions to help individuals/communities, spreading warm, humane stories, optimistic and positive living spirit. As for short stories, the content can be composed from real or fictional stories, characters, events... of beautiful living. The contest entries must be written in Vietnamese (or English for foreigners, the organizers will take care of the translation) no more than 1,600 words (short stories no more than 2,500 words).
About the prize: The contest has a total prize value of nearly 450 million VND.
In which, in the category of articles, reports, and notes, there are: 1 first prize: worth 30,000,000 VND; 2 second prizes: each worth 15,000,000 VND; 3 third prizes: each worth 10,000,000 VND;
5 consolation prizes: each prize is worth 3,000,000 VND.
1 prize for the article most loved by readers (including views and likes on Thanh Nien Online): worth 5,000,000 VND.
For the short story category: Prizes for authors with short stories participating in the contest: 1 first prize: worth 30,000,000 VND; 1 second prize: worth 20,000,000 VND; 2 third prizes: each worth 10,000,000 VND; 4 consolation prizes: each worth 5,000,000 VND.
The Organizing Committee also awarded 1 prize to the author with an article about entrepreneurs living beautifully: worth 10,000,000 VND and 1 prize to the author with an outstanding charity project of a group/collective/enterprise: worth 10,000,000 VND.
In particular, the organizing committee will select 5 honored characters voted by the organizing committee: award 30,000,000 VND/case; along with many other prizes.
Articles, photos and videos to participate in the contest, readers send to the address: [email protected] or by post ( Only applicable for the Article and Short Story contest categories ): Thanh Nien Newspaper Editorial Office: 268 - 270 Nguyen Dinh Chieu, Vo Thi Sau Ward, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City (clearly write on the envelope: Works participating in the 3rd LIVING BEAUTIFULLY contest - 2023). Detailed information and rules are posted on the Living Beautifully page of Thanh Nien Newspaper.
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