My other sister

Awhile back, I mentioned missing my little cousins, who affectionately call me uncle Thao. Now I'm gonna talk about their mum. Hien (or "Sonny") is the same age as my sister. She has always been like another daughter to my mum, and is forever the best friend of my sister. Recently, on the weekend, she woke up to find the right half of her face (temporarily) paralyzed, which later turned out to be because of a mini-stroke. She is 24.

It's strange that I'm not that close to her. I mean, we both have a certain affinity to our pasts (although hers was more extreme). We have both gone through an addiction to an illicit drug. Although my addiction was more psychological. Her demon was heroin.

It didn't help that her boyfriend was a heroin addict (he introduced her to the drug). For a year or more, no one could reach her, not even my sister. She was a lost cause.

Then something amazing happened. She came back. Slowly, both of them (her and her boyfriend) stopped using heroin. Her mother was ecstatic. Mother and daughter reconciled. Both young people made efforts to get clean. And on one wispy spring day, they announced they were getting married.

Bianca was born not long after, a healthy girl (much to everyones relief). Then, a boy, named Brandon. Life was hard for them, but they coped. Soon after though, the marriage went downhill. Her husband started falling into old habits. She could not go through that again (especially her children), so she divorced him.

The divorce was rocky, but necessary. Pretty soon, I believe, she finally found her happiness. She had 2 beautiful children, and she was clean. She had a job working for her hypocritical brother (he promised to pay her weekly, but he only paid her if she reminded him). She even saved enough money for a deposit for a small house, but she refused to leave her mum with her step-dad, who is a lazy, sexist bastard that does nothing but hurt the people around him.

Now she finds out she needs an operation. She's been put on some waiting list. She waits. It frustrates me to see someone who has worked so hard to live, be condemned to misery. The kids are still too young to understand. I can't bare to think about them one day waking up to find their mother paralyzed. Well, it's probably not as bad as I make it seem. They say everything looks good, and that the operation should be fine. One hopes.

I guess I wanted to make a short document of her battles through life. Well, there it is. Not as eloquent as I would have liked it. It's actually quite disjointed. I actually pretty much glossed over her battle over heroin. It certainly was immensely hard. Or even the distrust and hate she faced, even from her own brother. Oh well. She's coming to visit now. I bet the kids will punch my arm. "Unky" Thao's gonna turn into howling Thao. And howling Thao must smash!!! (or is that Hulk Thao?)