Handwritten letter and birth certificate of Swedish girl looking for Vietnamese mother

Kim Hoa always carries with her documents proving her origin to find her mother - Photo: TAM LE

With tears in her eyes, Kim Hoa sobbed on her journey to find her mother that has lasted for many days and months: "One day, maybe a miracle will bring us together. I am still waiting day and night for that miracle, Mom."

The girl with jet-black hair sat in front of me with a stack of papers proving her Vietnamese origin. Although she could not speak Vietnamese fluently, Kim Hoa (whose name is Kim) could understand what the Vietnamese people said.

If you read this, I want you to know that I have been raised as you wished. Now all I wish for is to see you and I also hope you are living a happy life.

KIM HOA

I went to find my mother hoping to see her once.

“I have been learning Vietnamese since I knew I was Vietnamese. I only learned through YouTube so I couldn’t speak well. Since I returned to Vietnam, about a year ago, my Vietnamese has improved,” Kim Hoa boasted, adding that she could now ride her motorbike to the meeting place.

All the information about Kim Hoa’s mother includes: the handwritten note that the mother left the child at Hanoi Obstetrics Hospital after giving birth; the birth certificate, the hospital’s announcement that the child needed to be adopted; the adoption handover minutes with a 3x4 photo of Kim at birth, signed by three parties including the hospital director, the adoptive parents and the Hanoi People’s Committee; and the Swedish couple’s commitment to adopt the child.

In a handwritten letter sent to the hospital, Kim Hoa's mother said her name was Nguyen Thi Hoan, 18 years old, from Nguyen Trai commune, Thuong Tin district, former Ha Son Binh province. She gave birth to Nguyen Thi Kim Hoa on July 10, 1990, and because she did not have the means to raise her, she asked the hospital to help raise her.

The application was written and signed on the same day Kim Hoa was born.

Kim Hoa's birth certificate, issued by the Hanoi Obstetrics Hospital, had both parents' names and addresses blank. In the hospital's notice to the Foreign Affairs Department, there were two noteworthy pieces of information: Kim's mother said she gave birth out of wedlock at the age of 18 and lived in Pho Lu, Bao Thang District, Hoang Lien Son Province (now Lao Cai ).

In the adoption papers, the Swedish couple said that he was Uef Grundel, born in 1949, an organization and management consultant. Ms. Eva Hof, born in 1952, worked as an office assistant and lived in Jerfalla, Sweden.

“For more than 30 years, I have been fortunate to be cared for by my adoptive parents and to be educated. I just want to see my birth mother. If she is living happily, I will not bother her or disrupt her life,” Kim Hoa expressed.

Kim Hoa was taken to Lao Cai by her close friend Dinh Thu Thuy to find her mother.

With Vietnamese friends looking for mother in the sea of ​​people

Kim Hoa said her adoptive parents took her back to Vietnam to travel many times and the older she got, the more she felt her roots, maternal love, and thought about ways to find her mother.

On the occasion of returning to her homeland in 2009, at the age of 20, she stayed for 5 months hoping to find her mother.

She signed up to volunteer at the Labor Education Center No. 2 (Ba Vi, Hanoi) – where HIV-infected children are cared for and treated. At the same time, she worked online for the NGO Save The Children, choosing to help disadvantaged children as her happiness.

In early 2023, she asked her adoptive parents to return to Vietnam permanently to find her birth mother. She rented a room in Truc Bach, Ba Dinh District (Hanoi) to learn Vietnamese, learn to ride a motorbike, and find a part-time job.

Luckily, she knew some devoted Vietnamese friends who drove with Kim everywhere to ask for information about her mother.

Her best friend Dinh Thu Thuy shared: "Knowing about her plan to find her mother but not knowing Vietnamese, I arranged my work to go with her."

First, the two went to Hanoi Obstetrics Hospital. They brought all the documents to ask the hospital to find the records, but after a while of searching, the person in charge of document storage reported the sad news that Kim Hoa's records could not be found.

This person said that the hospital's adoption procedures only included the same documents that Kim Hoa had. The hospital staff who handled the procedures at that time had also retired or transferred jobs. This person enthusiastically promised to let her know if any information was found.

The two of them drove to the Central Maternity Hospital to make sure, but there was no information there either.

At the Foreign Affairs Department, they also replied that Kim's file was no longer archived and introduced a female translator from the 1990s. They were secretly happy but were immediately disappointed because she was over 80 years old and sometimes remembered and sometimes forgot.

“Kim Hoa met her, but she only seemed to translate for the Foreign Affairs Department, her adoptive parents and the hospital, and did not meet Kim Hoa's biological mother,” said Ms. Thuy.

With no news of their mother, they boarded the train to Pho Lu (Lao Cai). The trip in the fall of 2023 lasted 4 days and 3 nights. The couple rented motorbikes to go to designated locations such as the police station, the neighborhood chief, and the school.

At the household registration office of Pho Lu Police, Kim Hoa nervously brought out all the documents to present.

Thuy asked the police to search the archives to see if there was any information about a woman named Nguyen Thi Hoan, born around 1972-1973, from Nguyen Trai commune, Thuong Tin district, Hanoi... The answer was still no matching information.

Not discouraged, they drove to the oldest school in Lu Street. The archivists there were all enthusiastic in their support, but there was still no information about Kim's mother.

“There was no one on the list with a name like Kim Hoa’s mother. They said that only people from the lowlands had names like that, maybe Kim Hoa’s mother followed her grandparents to the highlands to do new economic work. They took both of their phone numbers and promised to report immediately if they had any information,” Thuy said and continued to take her friend to the neighborhood group to meet the former police officer, but they still didn’t get anything positive.

Returning to Hanoi, because Thuy was busy, Kim Hoa hired an interpreter to ride a motorbike to Nguyen Trai commune, Thuong Tin district to continue looking for her mother. As a result, on the two visits, she wrote down in her notebook eight phone numbers of the village chiefs of Nguyen Trai commune.

Thuy ran to sit next to Kim Hoa and called all eight village chiefs, but all received the same answer: "I don't know." They said that if they had more information about their relatives, the search would be more effective.

Kim Hoa's mother's handwriting

Decided to stay in Vietnam to find mother

“I planned to stay in Vietnam for six months to find my mother, but I have been here for more than a year. I see my future in my homeland and want to live my life here,” Kim Hoa said, her eyes brimming with tears.

Her adoptive parents also agreed with their adopted daughter's decision. They are now old, but in addition to Kim Hoa, they also adopted a younger brother, so she is also at ease.

“Sweden is a country with more opportunities in life, but I and my friends adopted in other countries can confirm that our culture, language, nature, cuisine, music, family and roots are much more important than the wealth in the West,” Kim Hoa confided.

She also went to the Department of Adoption of the Ministry of Justice, registered for the program "As if there was never a separation" (also known as Speak Up) and many other places but still had no news about her mother.

“If you read this, I want you to know that I have been raised as you wished. Now all I wish for is to see you and I also hope you are living a happy life.

One day, maybe a miracle will bring us together. I am still waiting for that miracle day and night", Kim Hoa sent her heart to her mother.

Thuy suspects that Kim Hoa's mother may want to hide information so she may have given incorrect name and hometown.

“The paperwork was easy back then, maybe the information was incorrect. But Kim Hoa and I also asked if the Vietnamese mother wanted to find her child, she could find the address of Kim Hoa’s adoptive parents because their information was very clear,” Thuy said.

Tuoitre.vn

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/la-thu-viet-tay-va-tam-giay-khai-sinh-cua-co-gai-thuy-dien-di-tim-me-viet-20241206225148976.htm