Autumn Drops, author of hundreds of poems, falls seriously ill

Poet Giot Thu (Le Thi Hanh), author of nearly 500 poems set to music, is seriously ill and fighting for her life every day at Military Hospital 175 (HCMC).

"Saigon night suddenly makes my heart surge/Listening to you sing folk songs, I feel strangely nostalgic/The Lam River in your words/Is green all four seasons, I can't stop loving it/In the middle of the streets of the South/Suddenly I miss my homeland in the distant song/... My dear, the river is still waiting/Come back to Ha Tinh with me, I feel so passionate..." (music: Vo Xuan Hung, set to the poem Autumn Drops).

The poet of the smooth song Giua Sai Gon nghe em sing folk songs is suffering daily from excruciating pain due to a terminal illness.

Poet Giot Thu (Le Thi Hanh) is suffering from a serious illness and is fighting for her life every day at Military Hospital 175 (HCMC).

Photo: Quynh Tran

Poet Giot Thu: "Poor poetry, no money"

"If I were to tell the whole story of my life, I would only be able to sum it up in one word: suffering," poet Giot Thu said, tears welling up in his eyes.

"I was born into a poor family, life was extremely difficult. I had just finished 5th grade when my father passed away. My mother had to raise 6 siblings by herself, while the youngest was only 6 months old. I remember clearly, that day the house burned down and nothing was left. Even though I was a good student, I had to drop out in 8th grade. When I grew up, I went to work as a factory worker. I followed my husband to Saigon. Then he got married again, I applied to work as a security guard at an industrial park in District 12 (old), raising 3 children by myself for more than 10 years now, to the point that when I got sick, I didn't dare go to the doctor," the female poet shared.

Recently, I felt so uncomfortable that my nephew who works at Military Hospital 175 came to visit and took me to get checked out. Only then did I discover that I had stage 3B uterine cancer, with metastasis invading the bladder and hydronephrosis. I had to have surgery quickly, otherwise my kidney would become necrotic.

Thanks to timely surgery, poet Giot Thu overcame the critical condition; but she had to undergo chemotherapy, her health was affected, she vomited, and she could not eat or drink anything...

This morning when we met, she said: 'Tomorrow I will start the second round of medication. The cost is a lot, but thinking about my children, I have to try my best to live because they are still too young,' Ms. Giot Thu cried again.

Thanks to timely surgery, poet Giot Thu overcame the critical condition, but had to continue treatment - chemotherapy.

Photo: Quynh Tran

Wiping away the tears that rolled down her face, she held the two bags of urine in her hands as if she was afraid they would fall to the ground. "I work as a security guard to support all three children. I was poor when I was young, and I didn't have any money. My house is in Dong Thanh commune (HCMC) and I don't have any papers to borrow from the bank. I had to ask an acquaintance who just borrowed nearly 10 million for the third child to pay for university tuition. Now I don't know who else to rely on. The second child is studying at a vocational college..."

Now that the serious illness has struck, the whole family is depending on the eldest brother, whom she often calls "the determined young man who takes care of the family". Every day, the eldest child gets up at 3am to go to work, delivering goods to customers from Dong Nai to Tay Ninh. After finishing work, he hurriedly calls his mother to ask what she can eat. He stops by the market to buy food to cook his mother's favorite dish, then takes the opportunity to bring it to the hospital...

Every day, her eldest son has to wake up at 3am to deliver goods to earn money to cover the family's living expenses and his mother's medicine.

Photo: Q.HIEN

"The whole family's income now depends on the first child's meager salary. The money for my hospital stay, the money for my younger sibling's schooling and the gas for travel are all paid for by my nephew alone. Every day, my nephew brings food to the hospital so that my mother can eat more, and the chance of treatment for me will be better. Now I'm sitting here while my nephew has to carry goods by motorbike to Long Khanh, with danger lurking... Thinking of my nephew, my heart aches," poet Giot Thu confided.

Saying goodbye to her, watching the staggering figure of the poet Giot Thu return to the hospital, I felt even more sorry for the mother and her four children, not knowing what would happen when everything was gradually exhausted...

Songs based on poems of Autumn Drops that are loved by the audience: Happy Spring (music: Nguyen Hoang Hac), Listening to you sing folk songs in the middle of Saigon, River of Memories (music: Vo Xuan Hung), The sea sings a lullaby of love (music: Chu Van Anh), Baby loves the kite (music: Giao Tien), I like to call the moon my friend (music: Le Phuoc Long), Nostalgia for the season of love (music: Truong Tu Ka), That's all I have to do, baby (music: Nam Vinh)...

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/giot-thu-tac-gia-tho-cua-hang-tram-khuc-lam-benh-hiem-ngheo-185251117150725054.htm