A Cambodian Mother

This is not my own story so maybe you cant use it, but its still a great story anyway about a real Hero Woman.

i teach English as a second language. When the refugees started arriving from Southeast Asia, I had a job teaching them English.

This is one of my student'sstory.

She is a mother of five choldren, who lived in the Battambang section ofCambodia not far from the Thai border where theKhao-i Dang refugee camp is located. This was in the time of Pol Pot, and whenhis troops began getting close, she heard about it and knew at once what she had to do. That night she put her oldest son on her bicycle and pedaled to Thailand and the refugee camp. She left him there with friends and returned to pick up her next child, and delivered her tothe camop with her brother. All that night she rode that bicycle, takingher children, one after the other, to the camp and safety, finally gathering her family together.

I should add that she is a strong, imposing woman, and became a force among our students- she was someone everyone just naturally trusted, and the one we always knew we could depend upon, whatever the situation was. While we were all obviously extremely impressed with her story, none of us were surprised. A real hero.