He and she are not husband and wife, nor close relatives. Both have impairments. But their empathy has led him to willingly be her legs for 20 years now. That is the story of Mr Nguyen Van Cam and Mrs Tran Thi Nga (60 years old), house No. 106, Tan Thanh Ward, Tam Ky City, Quang Nam.
For twenty years, Mr Cam has willingly been the legs that push Mrs Nga along – Photo: Le Trung
Tragedy meets tragedy
He has been mute and deaf since birth. As a child, he was hit by a bomb and badly injured, and local people took him to a hospital in Da Nang, where his life was saved. The bombs of a time of turmoil, together with being mute and deaf from childhood, left him unable to remember where he came from, who his relatives were, or how old he was. He was then taken to a poorhouse (Tam Ky Social Centre) to be cared for. People gave him the name Nguyen Van Cam.
Mrs Nga comes from Da Nang City. After liberation, she worked as a road worker in Tien Phuoc District, Quang Nam. Once, while going into the forest to collect firewood to cook rice for her fellow workers, she was hit by a leftover wartime mine and taken to hospital for emergency treatment. The operation took the legs of the young woman who had just turned 17 and had never had a sweetheart. “Lying in the hospital bed, looking at my legs being cut off, I just wanted to bite my tongue and die”, Mrs Nga said. While they were at the Tam Ky Social Centre, they treated each other like brother and sister, helping each other in daily life. In 1994, the Tam Ky Social Centre was dissolved and merged into the Hoi An Social Centre; Mrs Nga asked to stay in Tam Ky and built a house to live in. She asked the management to let Mr Cam come and live with her so they could look after each other. “He and I are not husband and wife! Seeing how gentle and pitiful he is, with nowhere to turn, I asked for him to come and live like brother and sister, so we would have each other when the lights go out”, Mrs Nga said. And so, steadily for 20 years now, Mr Cam has used his hands to push the wheelchair carrying Mrs Nga. And she is the interpreter whenever he talks with the neighbours. They talk to each other by gesturing and by lip-reading.
Leaning on each other to live
Mrs Nga trades in scrap and junk. Her level-four house is piled high with sacks of scrap. She says that every day she asks Mr Cam to push her wheelchair to people’s houses in Tam Ky City to buy scrap. Each day trading in scrap, she earns a few tens of thousands of dong, enough for a meagre daily meal.
When the weather changes and he aches from the effects of his wounds, Mr Cam lies tossing on his bed. Mrs Cut quietly pushes her wheelchair to buy medicine and beef to cook porridge, caring for him as if he were her own flesh and blood. When he recovers, it is her turn to fall ill. Then Mr Cam looks after her.
In that small house, the two quietly lean on each other to get through each day. His hair has turned grey, and hers has turned salt-and-pepper. All day long he always wears a gentle smile. “Heaven was unfair to take my legs; sitting and complaining about it gets me nowhere. So I will try with him to support each other and live peacefully until the end of our lives”, Mrs Nga said.
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