Stay Alive, My Son by Pin Yathay


This is another tragedy story of a Cambodian who went through the war in 1975.

He was 31 that year who had three sons and a wife. On that day itself, he went to meet with other family members – 30 members altogether. Halfway through the distance, they were separated. His group became as small as eighteen members including him. Anyway, in the end, he was the only survivors among them – so sad right?

He made two escape attempts. He failed his first one. For the second attempt, he and his wife made a difficult decision of whether to give up on his only surviving but sick child. If they brought him along, he would be too weak to walk long distances and therefore would suffer. In the end, they decided to bring him to the hospital so that at least there were people to look after him – yes, his neighboring bed was a very nice lady who lost her husband and her three sons. Before he left, he made him remember his and his wife names and gave him his wedding ring.

There were twelve people in total who made the escape. In the middle of the journey, they were separated by an unpredictable situation and so were being separated. He was then with his wife and her friend.

However, they were being separated again when the fire started burning part of the grass at night. Later, he could not find both of them.

He took slightly more three weeks to complete the journey to Thailand.

I really take my hat off him.

I doubt I would have that much determination, strength and courage to do so. Imagine killing any animals – could be eating it raw when there was no fuel left, trying out any wild fruits or vegetables and sleep in the forests?

Anyway, this phrase “Stay Alive, My Son” was told by his father to him two days before his death.