The family scattered 64 years ago when the youngest sibling was just a few months old.

Pho Canh Quan has lived with his Chinese parents and three siblings in Ben Chuong Duong in HCM City. He did not know that the woman he lived with was not his biological mother. 

In fact, the woman was the first wife of his father, while the siblings he lived with in his childhood had the same father, but different mothers. He did not know this, because the siblings and the stepmother all loved him.

In 1972, Quan's second brother moved to Hong Kong (China). In 1976, when Quan turned 16 years old, the brother sponsored his parents and siblings to go to China to live with him, leaving Quan alone in Vietnam.

One year later, he left for Australia to settle down in Victoria State, when he was 64 years old.

It wasn't until recently, after his father passed away, that Quan learned the truth: he is not the son of the woman he called mother. He was also told that he has a full brother and a sister in Vietnam.

He was surprised about the news, because his father never mentioned this throughout the years.

He remembered the days in Saigon (now HCM City). His father ran a small watch repair shop at Thai Binh Market, where he and his father once had happy conversations. 

Back in 1959, when the boy Quan was only a few months old and his parents, Mister Pho Giam and Mrs Tu Huu, separated. Tu Huu kept the two older children, aged 2-3, while Pho Giam took the youngest son to his first wife's home in Ben Chuong Duong.

At that time, the two older children, Quyen and Linh, still very small, were left with their maternal grandparents and grew up without knowing their father or their youngest brother.

Like her former husband, Tu Huu said nothing to her children about their biological father, brother, or paternal family. After separating, she changed her children's surname to hers, becoming Tu Quoc Quyen and Tu Bat Linh Linh.

Growing up without a father, Quyen and Linh experienced a difficult and impoverished childhood. Tu Huu later remarried a Singaporean businessman and had two more children.

Later, her new husband eventually returned to his home country, leaving a house and a monthly allowance to support their two children. This enabled Quyen and Linh to live with their mother for a certain period.

Quyen recalls his mother as a strict and reserved woman. He considered his grandmother as his mother, so the death of the grandmother was a shock to him.

When the monthly allowance from the second husband ended, Tu Huu had to sell duck eggs at ThaiBinh Market to earn a living and support her children.

Supporting four children alone made life incredibly difficult. Linh had to leave school when she was an eighth grader, and Quyen an eleventh grader.

To survive, Quyen had to take different heavy jobs -  bricklayer, water carrier and others. “That's what losing a father was like,” he recalled.

His life improved after he married a hardworking wife. 

Meanwhile, Linh became a Buddhist nun. She feels that the life at the temple is suitable for her. However, when hearing that she has a younger sibling who wanted to find her, she was very happy.

“At the age of 64, I have nothing to lose. Why don’t I meet my siblings to find happiness and enjoy the family reunion in the last years of my life," Quan said, as he returned to Vietnam from Australia, hoping to find his relatives.

And the members of the family have reunited thanks to ‘Nhu chua he co cuoc chia ly’ TV program (As if we were never apart). Three siblings had a moving and happy meeting in HCM City.

They embraced and conversed, feeling a mix of awkwardness as they had nearly forgotten Vietnamese and Chinese. The conversation swung between Vietnamese, Chinese, and English, yet they understood one another as they shared lingering questions about their biological parents.

Quan was told that Tu Huu, his real mother, passed away because of cancer at the age of 60. He is happy as he has found his brother and sister whom he had not known for over 60 years.

Nguyen Thao