Nguyen Ngoc Tram contacted Dantri/Dtinews after being introduced by Arthur Chareire, who was recently reconnected with his Vietnamese mother after 31 years as an adoptee in France.
Nguyen Ngoc Tram wants to find her two sons who were sent to France for adoption in 1993.
Tram said she married a man from Hung Yen Province and gave birth to her first son in 1981, naming him Nguyen Viet Cuong. While pregnant with her second child in 1983, her husband died suddenly in a train accident.
Four months after his death, she gave birth to her second son, Nguyen Van Quyen. She worked the fields and traded small goods to raise her children in severe poverty.
A decade later, tragedy struck again when a flash flood swept away their home. Homeless, Tram took her sons from place to place to survive. The boys never had the chance to attend school.
“Watching other children go to school, Cuong told me he wished he could study. Hearing that, I could only cry because I could do nothing,” she recalled.
By the end of that year, overwhelmed and unable to provide a stable life, she contacted an organisation in Hanoi and expressed her wish to send her sons abroad for adoption, hoping they would have a better future. She later brought both boys to Hanoi for the handover.
At the time, the brothers did not know they were being adopted in France. They reassured their mother, telling her to return home and keep working so they could reunite one day.
“I was like a lost soul, aching for them. Many times I travelled from Tuyen Quang to Hanoi hoping to visit Cuong and Quyen, but the organisation refused,” Tram said.
Some time later, representatives of the organisation visited her hometown to complete documents to bring the children to France.
According to Tram, both boys were over ten years old then. The receiving organisation asked to adjust their birth years so the paperwork would show that they were around six or seven, making the adoption process easier.
“After the procedures were finished, I went everywhere to work. I threw myself into labour to forget my sorrow and longing. I told myself that one day I would become wealthy,” she said.
Over the years, Tram gradually built up assets through property investment. Though she now lives comfortably, she has never felt at peace, tormented by guilt and longing for her sons.
“To others, I may seem strong. No one knows I have carried this pain inside, crying quietly for decades,” she said.
Since 2002, Tram has tried to search for her sons but did not know where to begin. She repeatedly called the people who handled the adoption in Hanoi, but received no response.
Recently, thanks to acquaintances who helped recover old documents, she unexpectedly obtained a photograph sent from the adoptive family in France around 1994-95, kept in her hometown in An Khang Commune. The small photograph has become a vital clue in her long journey to find her sons.
The photo of the two boys sent from France.
“I think their lives must be busy and difficult, which is why they have not returned home. When they were young, Cuong and Quyen were very affectionate. They will never forget where they come from,” she said.
If her sons return, Tram intends to give each one a house. All the property she has accumulated will also be transferred to them, so they can live securely for the rest of their lives.
“If my economic situation were still poor, I would not dare search for them. Now that life is better, I want to bring them home and make up for the years they lost,” she said.
Although she knows the search across Europe will be difficult, Tram hopes that, with the help of Dantri, her dream of reuniting with her sons will come true.
“Wherever you are, please speak up so I can hold you both again, just like when you were little. Cuong, Quyen, do not worry about right or wrong. I only want to make up for my mistakes,” she said.
Anyone with information can contact:
Nguyen Ngoc Tram (formerly named Nguyen Thi Chap).
Address: An Tuong Ward, Tuyen Quang Province.
Dantri Newspaper
Hanoi hotline: 0973-567-567Ho Chi Minh City hotline: 0974-567-567
Email: info@dantri.com.vn
