Then she met and fell in love
with a white man, which was
a crime in South Africa at that
time. She wanted to have a
baby with that man without
any responsibilities from him.
That is why she had Noah and
she gave him the name Trevor
Noah, a name of no meaning
whatsoever in South Africa, be-
cause she wanted her child be-
holden to no fate. She worked
very hard and raised Noah
alone in her own amazing way.
She taught Noah English as his
first language and tried hard to
bring him a better education
even though they were very
poor. Sometimes they had to
eat “dog bones” for their meals.
She sent Noah to study in a
private school, bought him En-
glish books, and let him watch
American shows, which no
South African people did at
that time. She taught Noah a
lot of things, including inde-
pendence, society, understand-
ing, and thinking deeply to be a
good man. She taught him how
to treat a woman, taught him not
to ask for something they could
not afford or was not necessary,
taught him to decide what he
thought was right and to be re-
sponsible for his decision, let
him have some experiences
which she never had a chance to
experience herself such as pic-
nicking together on Saturday.
If she and Noah had an ar-
gument, she wanted them to
write letters to each other as
friends to complain about that
instead of forcing him to do
whatever she wanted. The way
she raised Noah was wonder-
ful. It is like she brought the
whole world to him to explore
and discover himself. She
made the best things for him.
That reminds me about my
Mom. I was born in a poor vil-
lage in Northeast Vietnam. Af-
ter being married to my Dad
for 5 years, she had three chil-
dren which made us poorer and
poorer. When we didn’t have
enough food to eat, she decided
to go to China to look for a job
with hope that she could make
more money to raise her kids.
I was told that, when my eldest
sister started going to school,
my Dad got in an accident
while he tried to fix the house
before a storm came. My Mom
came back home and heard
my sister’s teacher complain-
ing about her studies. My Mom
said nothing is more import-
ant than her child’s education.
So she decided to use the rest
of her money she made when
she worked in China, after
49
paying my dad’s hospital bill,
to start a small business as a
butcher in our hometown and
took care of our education.
Through her business, she
made friends with all the teach-
ers in the school, which was
why our grade report came to
her before we got it from our
teacher and we would be in big
trouble if our grades were bad.
Trust me, big, big trouble. One
time, my sister got a C in Math
in 3rd grade, so my Mom told
my sister to climb to a tree,
and answer all the questions
of her homework. Every time
she answered wrong, my mom
would pretend to use her big
butcher knife to cut the tree.
She did the same with all of us,
and we all were so scared that
we didn’t dare be lazy anymore.
That is my Mom. She always
told us that education is the
key for us to be successful. She
apologized to us because she
didn’t have a chance to go to
school, have a good job, or give
us a better life, but in my mind
she is my superhero, just like
Noah’s mother. She inspires me
to try harder and harder every
day to learn English and trans-
fer my degree certification to
find a better job, which would
help me have a better life and
support my parents in Vietnam.