20 years of selling lottery tickets to raise 6 children: Then mother 'graduated' from the school of life...

In the warm afternoon air of Khanh Cuong commune ( Quang Ngai province ), we visited a small house near the slopes of Be Mountain, where 70-year-old mother Le Thi Loi still diligently tends cattle and works in the fields. More than 20 years ago, she left her impoverished hometown to sell lottery tickets in Ho Chi Minh City to raise and educate her six children.

Her life is a testament to a mother's strength and boundless love.

Now, after 20 years of hard work, she returns to her hometown, still wearing her faded clothes, small in stature, but with kind eyes that always shine with pride in her six children, all of whom now have stable careers. Among them, four are engineers, and two are graduates of colleges and vocational schools.

Goodbye to the fields, to the city

Following the small, tree-lined concrete village roads, we arrived at the home of Mrs. Le Thi Loi in residential area 6, Thanh Son village (formerly Pho Cuong commune, now Khanh Cuong commune, Quang Ngai province). The simple, one-story house was cozy and charming. Mr. Tran Van Huan, 49 years old, Mrs. Loi's eldest son, said his mother wasn't home, tending cattle at the foot of Be Mountain nearby.

- Ảnh 1. — Mrs. Le Thi Loi returned to the village, continued to live on farming and herding cows.

At seventy years old, her face has a benevolent expression and a gentle smile. Sitting under a bush at the foot of Mount Bé, Mrs. Lời recounted her 20 years of hardship and wandering in Ho Chi Minh City selling lottery tickets, partly to support her six children's education, and partly to treat her own kidney disease and her husband's spinal osteoarthritis back home.

- Ảnh 2. — Ms. Le Thi Loi is talking about her 20-year journey of selling lottery tickets to raise her children.

"The rice fields didn't yield enough rice, my husband was ill, and my children were still in school. Many nights I tossed and turned, just crying. Then I thought, if I don't leave, the children will have to drop out of school," she recounted. Then one morning, wiping away her tears, the mother left her hometown, taking a few clothes and a few hundred thousand dong, and boarded a bus to Ho Chi Minh City, beginning her journey to make a living.

With no profession and no connections, she chose to sell lottery tickets on the street – a job that required no capital, only her legs and endurance. From then on, she began months of enduring the sun and rain, walking through the city's alleys to exchange tickets for meals and to fulfill her children's dreams.

Years of hard work

Ms. Loi's first rented room was a corner of a dilapidated old house in District 11 (formerly). "The room was cramped, and there were too many people. I let a few people from my hometown live with me, both to save on rent and to have someone to share it with. Every night we lay sprawled out like sardines, but it was fun because it wasn't so lonely," she recalled.

The eldest son, Tran Van Huan, recounted that his younger brother, Tran Van Phong, went to school before 1996 (studying at a college and then transferring to a university at Nha Trang Fisheries University, Khanh Hoa ). After his younger brother went to school, Mr. Huan moved to Ho Chi Minh City with his mother and apply to study at Industrial College 4.

"My mother sells lottery tickets from early morning until late at night. Around noon, she comes home to cook lunch for my siblings and me before we go to school, then she goes back out again. Sometimes she comes home late, and we only eat cold rice with boiled vegetables. Whatever she eats, we eat too. And for 20 years like that, she has never once complained of being tired."

- Ảnh 3. — Mr. Tran Van Huan talks about the 20 years his mother sold lottery tickets in Ho Chi Minh City.

While Huân and his younger brother Trần Văn Phong were studying, their next youngest brother, Trần Văn Lưu, went to Ho Chi Minh City to study at Tôn Đức Thắng University. And so it went, one hadn't even graduated before another started. Six sons, one in Nha Trang and five in Ho Chi Minh City, all lived with their mother. Whatever she ate, the sons ate too.

The rice pot grew bigger each day, but the food dwindled. "Meat and fish were just for show, but in reality, it was mostly vegetables and soup," Mr. Huan said with a sad smile. But thanks to the small change his mother saved, the six siblings gradually fulfilled their dreams of getting an education.

On her journey to make a living, Mrs. Loi has mixed feelings. Some people know that she sells lottery tickets to support her 6 children's education so they buy them for her, others mock her...

During those years, she struggled to provide for her children's education while also sending money back home to pay for her husband's medical treatment. When her husband became seriously ill, she would rush back to care for him, arrange for his medication, and then return to the city to continue her struggle for survival. The two of them were like the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, only seeing each other for a few days each year during the Lunar New Year.

"Every time he came back, he just said: 'Please hang on a little longer, the kids are about to graduate.' Hearing that, I had more strength," she said, her eyes red.

20 years and a "graduation" day

In 2017, their youngest son, Tran Van Thu, graduated from Van Lang University. That day, she called her husband with tears in her eyes to share the news: "That's it, honey, we've managed to raise all of them!"

She said that was the day she “graduated”. Not from university, but from the school of life of a mother who had been selling lottery tickets for 20 years.

"I'm so happy that they have jobs. I just tell them: Even if you become successful in business, don't forget your mother who sold lottery tickets," she laughed.

Returning home, she returned to the fields. But her joy was not complete, a few years later her husband passed away.

- Ảnh 4. — The house of Mrs. Le Thi Loi in Thanh Son village, Khanh Cuong commune (Quang Ngai)

Now, every morning, she leads her cows out to the slopes of Mount Bé. Few would imagine that she once endured a arduous 20-year journey in a foreign land. "Now I'm very happy. Seeing my children grow up, I see in the rice they eat drops of my sweat and tears. I only hope they live decent lives and are kind to others; that's enough," her voice was filled with contentment.

The life of a mother who spent 20 years selling lottery tickets, exchanging every penny to feed and educate her children, is a beautiful story of boundless maternal love. After all, what she "won" wasn't a jackpot, but rather the greatest "prize" of life: six children raised to be good people.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/20-nam-ban-ve-so-nuoi-6-con-an-hoc-roi-me-cung-tot-nghiep-truong-doi-185251021145738759.htm