A Mother’s Endless Grief – The Story of Mrs. Thơm in Vietnam

 For the past eleven years, tragedy has never stopped haunting one mother in Vietnam.

Mrs. Cao Thị Ngọc Thơm, a 40-year-old woman from Quảng Trạch, has lost all three of her children to drowning.

Her youngest daughter, Mai Cao Ngọc Hà, was only 11 years old. On October 31st, she was riding an electric bicycle with two friends after school when floodwaters suddenly swept through their village road.
In just a few seconds, the rushing current pulled both girls away. Only one was saved.

Hundreds of people searched through the cold, dark water for hours.
At 8 p.m., they found little Hà’s body — just 200 meters from where she was lost.

When Mrs. Thơm heard the news while working as a construction laborer in Ho Chi Minh City, she collapsed.
She flew home that same night, only to see her daughter one last time.

But this was not the first time she had faced such heartbreak.
In 2014, her first son drowned at the age of five.
Eight years later, in 2022, her second son also died in a similar accident.

Ngọc Hà was her only hope left — the reason she kept working every day, earning just over $10 a day, sending everything home for her children’s care.

Now, all she has left are three framed photos, and a dream —
to build a small house, a place where her children can finally rest together.

“I sometimes wanted to end my life,” she said, her voice breaking.
“But I have to keep living — to build that little house for my babies.”

Local authorities and neighbors have been trying to comfort her, calling it “a tragedy too painful to imagine.”

A story like this reminds us that behind every news headline, there is a heart that’s been shattered —
and a mother who has lost everything.

May the three little souls rest in peace.
And may no parent ever have to endure such pain again.