Page 246 - แม่ถ้วน หลีกภัย

)utlook "I am illiterate. I have no education. That's why I have to
earn a living from selling at the market," she declared.
Post Section Three "When they told me it was time to rest, I just answered that

U'T talks about life as a mae kah if they really wanted me to live a long life, then they shouldn't try
to stop me. And they did stop trying. They knew too well I would not
ermsuk Kasitipradit in Trang listen anyway," she said ~ith a laugh, showing her happiness with

! or a politician's influence could make life and work.
gi\-e up her active life as a mae kah in Born and brought up in Trang, granny Tuan said her child-
hood dream was to be a nurse or a doctor so that she could help the
sick.
1ing. the granny gets up to prepare her
1ar -et in Trang, just as she always has. Her mother, however, was sick at the time. Among her eight
brothers and sisters, she was the only who did not go school because
i. tent pleas of her eight children-one of
she was asked to stay at home and take care of her mother.
1 Leekpai-to stop and enjoy the fruits of
"I was practically heart-broken," she recalled. "I was
he has invested for her children.
speechless. I had to swallow back my tears. You see, I really
to give up their ideas. I told them I would
wanted to go to school, to have an education. I wanted to be a nurse
1 order from heaven," the old lady said
so that I could help people. I cried. But I had to hide the tears from
my grandfather."
1 i clearly proud of her good health. But
Her life took a sharp turn at 18 when she met her husband
.rnrmth and kindness. A faint smile of
Niyom Leekpai, who was then a teacher in Trang. She said she
,ible on her gentle face. And when she
resisted his proposals for four years before she finally agreed to be
herself as mae, or mother.
his wife.
: loving kindness deceive you; she is
"The first time he asked me, I said a firm no. I explained
en it comes to work.
that I did not want to go through with it because I did not
her children have yielded so far to her
have any education at all. He was very persistent, though. He
t:- in the market gives her an active social
said I would make a good housewife. But I still said no," she
\\ ith her friends customers. It is this, she
recalled.
both mentally and physically.