Cuc, born 1962, currently living in Bau Ham commune, Dong Nai province, has been selling fish for a living at Cay Gao market (Bau Ham commune) for over 30 years. Her customers are mostly her close friends and acquaintances.

However, no one knew about Cuc's relatives or siblings. This is because she was abducted in 1971 and drifted through many places before settling in Dong Nai province.

Around 1969, Cuc was sent by her mother from Hoi An City, former Quang Nam province, to Da Nang City to be raised by her aunt, Lam Thi Muoi, born 1935. There, Cuc spent her days looking after her aunt's child while the aunt worked as an egg vendor at the market.

One afternoon in 1971, Cuc was lured away by a woman named Hoa, a regular customer of her aunt, who promised to take her to meet her mother. Believing her, Cuc handed her younger sibling to her aunt at the market and followed the woman.

Upon reaching a house, the woman named Hoa led  Cuc down to a basement. A little later, the person who adopted Cuc appeared and gave her food. The next morning, this person took Cuc to Hue.

There, Cuc was adopted and put into the household register with the new name Nguyen Thi Ta. Right from the first days in Hue, Cuc tried to escape but was caught.

Throughout her time there, she was frequently abused by her adoptive mother. By the age of 12 or 13, Cuc had to work hard. She worked as a hired hand, gleaned rice, chopped firewood to sell, and even had to work on dike embankment in place of her adoptive mother.

Pitying the girl for her hardship, a neighbor told her about a job in Mo Cay district, former Ben Tre province. Hearing this, Cuc and a neighbor found their way to Ben Tre and started working for a tailor's family.

She was given a new name, Hoa, and continued to look after the owner's children, also being frequently abused. When she grew up, the adoptive family did not want her to stay in the house anymore.

Once, after being severely beaten and humiliated, Cuc sobbed uncontrollably. Discovering the incident, local authorities summoned the employers, demanding that they free her.

After more than a decade of wandering, Cuc escaped life as a servant. Then she met the man who is now the father of her children.

She decided to marry him even without love, simply because he was from Quang Tri. She believed that someday he would take her back to his hometown, and on the way to Quang Tri, she would pass by the former Quang Nam Province and have a chance to find her biological family.

However, her husband was not diligent in his work and passed away early. She raised four children on her own and carried a deep longing to find her family.

The tearful reunion

After her children got married, Cuc married a single neighbor. Knowing her desire to find her roots, he supported her and took her back to her hometown to search.

However, they still had no news about her biological family and decided to seek assistance from the "Nhu Chua He Co Cuoc Chia Ly" (As if there was never a separation) TV program.

After many efforts, the program found Lam Thi Muoi. Despite being 90 years old, Muoi vividly remembered the timeline related to her abducted niece.

In early 1960s, as the war escalated, Lam Thi Xin (Muoi’s older sister) stayed in their hometown while Muoi followed her husband and evacuated to Da Nang with her children.

When Xin’s husband was arrested and imprisoned on Con Dao Island for revolutionary activities, Muoi’s husband advised her to return to their hometown to bring some of Xin’s children to Da Nang for care.

At that time, Muoi brought her niece Cuc home to raise. Cuc stayed with her for about two years before being kidnapped. When her disappearance was discovered, the family searched everywhere but found nothing.

After the war, Cuc’s biological family was reunited. During gatherings, her parents and siblings always longed for her. Xin, in particular, cried every day thinking of her missing daughter.

When Nhu Chua He Co Cuoc Chia Ly located Cuc’s relatives, both her parents had already passed away. However, she still had an aunt and siblings who never stopped hoping for the moment of reunion.

On the day they met, Cuc’s entire family embraced each other and burst into tears of joy. At age 90, Muoi cried uncontrollably when reunited with her niece after more than 50 years.

In her aunt’s arms, Cuc also sobbed, unable to speak as she shared her lifelong pain of separation.

Ha Nguyen