Showing 1-8 of 8 results
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Our Rose of Klong Toey, a Christmas baby
Life, Father Joe Maier, Published on 23/12/2021
» At Christmas, deep in the heart of each of us is a "broken alleluia". So often, almost always, in the slums of Klong Toey and here at Mercy Centre. The whispers, tears, the silent gestures of the children say so much about sadness and being dumped, left alone in an abandoned building or a bus stop. That's the broken part, and the alleluia is the joy of Christmas, of being loved. Being found.
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Hope and sorrow
Life, Father Joe Maier, Published on 04/03/2019
» For several years a five-year-old girl we call Miss Ice lived in a shack with her 25-year-old HIV-infected, tuberculosis-sick mum and three stray dogs no one ever bothered to name.
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From low to high
Life, Father Joe Maier, Published on 12/11/2018
» Seventeen years ago, Mum gave birth to a healthy son in a provincial prison hospital two hours outside of Bangkok. She named her son Ake. To avoid the nightmare of trying to remember who might have been the actual father of her child, she had blessed him with her own last name.
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A dance to fix a granddad’s broken heart
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 20/03/2016
» She said, “I think I was dreaming. I was sleepy, but I mean, I sort of remember, and it wasn’t scary. Mum in heaven whispered ‘Ahh — ree — sah — rah ... my daughter, you’ve got to mend granddad’s broken heart and stop the pain in our family. Please do this for me, and I shall rest in peace. I didn’t mean to, but I hurt him so much.' ”
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A sprightly angel and a sacred tree
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 09/03/2014
» Lovely Miss Sprite. Angel of the week — second year of kindergarten — winner of the colouring contest — elegantly going on five years of age. She has a voice pitched between the song of an angel and a chirping baby bird sitting on the edge of the nest, not quite ready to fly. Likes to put a leaf behind her ear — picked from that Sacred Tree behind their slum shack. Her mum used to do that too. Lovely features, she has a smile that could stop any herd of wild elephants that might be visiting the neighbourhood. As for her innate beauty? You would immediately pick her out of a crowd. There was a problem: orphan girls fetch a pretty price. But we dealt with that.
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Miss Mott's Slaughter House survival
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 17/11/2013
» This is the harsh story of our own Miss Mott and the home-grown, inbred violence and drug savagery that seeped into Klong Toey's Slaughter House a few years back. Miss Mott was Slaughter House-born in the Year of the Rabbit _ the most gentle of creatures _ destined never to hurt anyone or anything but with predators all around.
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Miss Dao and her amazing feats
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 23/09/2012
» She has mostly had to learn everything herself. Mum couldn't be there for her, and Miss Dao also has to take care of Granny, as she'd promised her mother. You know, things like mixing her betel nut chaw and holding her hand crossing the street. She has three older half-brothers and a half-sister, but they aren't close. Her half-sister is married, and Dao only saw her once at the temple for her mother's cremation.
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The long road to mercy
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 19/02/2012
» Seven, she favours that number. She's seven times seven years of age and has been "Mother Gung" to our HIV/Aids kids under seven for seven years now. It's been, she says, "a long journey, and I choose to stay".
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