Loi calls the cemetery, where there are 14,000 children buried, Rose Manor. All the children and fetuses there were brought by Loi from hospitals and clinics.

Rose Manor is part of land owned by Loi’s family. The cemetery was built based on the will of her deceased grandfather, who was determined to reserve a large area of land as a place to bury the ill-fated fetuses and newborns.

During his lifetime, her grandfather loved children very much. He fathered 18 children and lost one at a very young age. Later, he decided to reserve a large area of land on the mountainside as a burial place for newborns and fetuses.

After the grandfather passed away, Loi decided to continue taking care of the dead newborns and fetuses because she believed she was destined to implement her grandfather’s will and take charity work.

In 2004, she officially took over the cemetery, receiving fetuses and dead newborns and burying at the cemetery.

At first, she thought she would receive refused fetuses from hospitals and bury them there. Later, she began receiving the dead newborns and fetuses found by people as well.

“I love them all. There are 14,000 graves at the cemetery. I acknowledge all of them as my children. I am their mother,” she said.

Loi lives with her family at a house on the mountain foot given by her grandfather and goes every day to the cemetery to take care of the graves. If hospitals contact her, she will leave to receive dead newborns and fetuses for burial, so that they can ‘lie at rest’.

She washes and shrouds the newborns and fetuses before burial. As for the children who have parents and die after birth, she encourages their parents to build graves for them.

“We reserve a piece of land for your child to rest. When people live, they have a home. When they die, they have a grave,” she says to the parents. “You need to build a grave for your child, so that he can understand that he is cared for and loved by his parents.'

If parents have financial problems, she undertakes all the work, from shrouding dead bodies to building graves. The money to maintain the cemetery and build graves comes from benefactors. 

A lifetime work

After spending many years to take care of the manor, Loi met a man. However, their love had to undergo a lot of challenges because of her strange job. The family of the man did not want her to continue the job. The future mother in law feared that if Loi continued to take the job, the couple may not have children.

However, finally, the couple’s decision to get married was respected by the two families. They live in the small house leaning against the mountain.

Loi said she feels lucky because her husband supports her work. He is in charge of making money to feed the family and take care of their children, so that Loi can spend time on the charity work which she has been doing over the last 20 years.

According to Loi, at the cemetery, the number of aborted fetuses is higher than the number of newborns. About 200 graves are for newborns, while the remaining area is reserved for fetuses.

Loi said she cannot give up the job which is seen as ‘creepy’ in the eyes of many people because she goes directly to hospitals to receive the children’s dead bodies and she can feel the pain the children have to bear when they are brought out of their mothers’ wombs. 

“I bring the children to the cemetery, look at every face and wash every finger and toe. I feel sorry for them,” she said.

Rose Manor is a cemetery, but the landscape there is not gray and gloomy because there are many colorful plants and flowers grown by Loi.

Believing that the deceased children like bright colors, Loi has decorated and painted the graves with bright colors.

Ha Nguyen