Tabitha Foundation Cambodia
SIGN UP FOR OUR
NEWSLETTERS

Not readable? Change text.

Newsletters

With our regular newsletters, we aim to keep you posted on all the interesting and important news and updates of our programs and various activities. Enjoy reading! 

November 24, 2006

            	

Dear friends and partners, It’s a difficult letter I write today – it’s a letter dedicated to Som – one of our longest serving staff – a man who is suffering from heart failure. It is time to pay a tribute to Som, and to Marianne and to Dara and to so many who have helped us and been a part of us and have traveled on.

Som has been ill for the past two years with active hepatitis B. Last week the doctor told him that he is in heart failure and he should rest and not work – he has been home for the past 7 days but his heart is not at peace for he feels ashamed that we continue to pay him his salary. Ah, my Som – how can I not pay? Its like a marriage – Tabitha is – it is for better and for worse – it just happens to be a worse time right now. Remember when we first met – you, like all the staff, were suffering so terribly from post traumatic stress – you could hardly move – and how for the first six months – I would leave a concrete list of things for you to do – and you did them without complaint – remember how you slept downstairs in the garage and I slept upstairs in the stock room – we both felt safe as long as we there together – and then house building began and you came to life – you helped us with our teams – making them strong and feeling good about themselves – you spoke of how that gave so much meaning to your life – and then when Miriam came along – you in your quiet way, made sure I did things the right way with her – and then when she was two, you taught her how to hold a hammer and to hit a nail – three weeks ago her teacher sent home some work she had done – she had read a story about a fish who granted wishes to a man who had saved the fish’s life – the question was asked – what would Miriam ask for – her reply is a testimony to you – she said, I would ask for money – my mum and me work for Tabitha and we need money to buy lots of wood so that teams can build houses for all our families. You and I gave up working with the teams several years ago – time for the young people to carry on. You are older than most of the staff and your quiet wisdom have given so much to us. When the staff were up set about what would happen if something happened to me, you spoke and said, that Tabitha would go on because when I was on holidays – you all worked together to make it good. You always liked a good laugh – the bees in our trees were a good example of how you and I could get others to do things both of us knew was not so easy. Our parties where so much fun – you were the first one up dancing and the last to sit down. Every morning you greet me with a quiet word and a cup of coffee – you always started my day right. I miss having you here. You have touched so many lives in so many ways – there are so many people who would not have grace in their lives if it were not for you. You are a model of grace and wisdom and quiet attention to all that needs to be done. The past year, you have quietly cleaned every item in the store – making sure everything looks good. No one told you to do so – you just did it. You are a model for me – your quiet dignity and strength give me dignity and strength. You are the representative of all who give to us so that we can reach out – so many give quietly and without expectation of reward – simply because, like you, they have faith in us and in the families we work with. I know not what the future holds for us both – but whatever the journey may be – I am with you in spirit – and should you leave this life of sorrows – then know – it won’t be long before we will meet again. I thank my God for you and what you have done for all of us. I thank my God for each of you, our friends and partners, for all you have done for us – whatever our respective journeys are – wherever we may go – know that each of you has left a piece of your spirit with me, with our staff, with our families – and that a piece of Som, our staff, our families, of me will always be with you. Thank you. Janne