In a recent family interview for the German magazine Brigitte, we were asked:
‘What’s the best thing you’ve ever done as a family?’
We said: ‘Going on an all expenses 11 day trip to LA & Disneyland in 2004!’
Why? Because so many people across the whole of Hong Kong, people we did not know and had never met, came together to show their support for our family. For what we, as parents, had done for Mui, and for a little girl with a deforming skin disorder whom the government had condemned to live in an institution on the very fringes of society; who’d fought repeated blood and chest infections and hospitalizations; who’d endured abandonment and repeated rejection, and who’d now learned to live life with a cheery smile on her face. Companies and hotels and individual people came together as one, to show their support.
Two of the supporters we’ve never met were: Mareile and Matthieu Paley.
At the time, Mareile wrote to two of the organisers, Alison Whittle and Nisha Parmanand: “… we had both seen Mui in the Hong Kong subway together a few days before we left for Europe to get married. The little girl had left quite an impression on us just observing her from afar for this 20 min. subway ride. She was sad, because a little boy had stared at her and then run away and started crying. She seemed to argue with the adult (her mom?) she was with about the world being unfair, but she had such an aura of strength, determination and a will to live which we could sense… that told us that there is an admirably mature character behind her face.
We would like to donate some of the money so generously given to us by our friends and family for our honeymoon for Mui’s Disneyland trip.”
We’ve never expected support, or taken it for granted when it’s been given.
That’s why, 11 years later, the memory of our 11 days in LA & Disneyland still bowls us over!
Find more recollections check out our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GirlBehindTheFace
‘What’s the best thing you’ve ever done as a family?’
We said: ‘Going on an all expenses 11 day trip to LA & Disneyland in 2004!’
Why? Because so many people across the whole of Hong Kong, people we did not know and had never met, came together to show their support for our family. For what we, as parents, had done for Mui, and for a little girl with a deforming skin disorder whom the government had condemned to live in an institution on the very fringes of society; who’d fought repeated blood and chest infections and hospitalizations; who’d endured abandonment and repeated rejection, and who’d now learned to live life with a cheery smile on her face. Companies and hotels and individual people came together as one, to show their support.
Two of the supporters we’ve never met were: Mareile and Matthieu Paley.
At the time, Mareile wrote to two of the organisers, Alison Whittle and Nisha Parmanand: “… we had both seen Mui in the Hong Kong subway together a few days before we left for Europe to get married. The little girl had left quite an impression on us just observing her from afar for this 20 min. subway ride. She was sad, because a little boy had stared at her and then run away and started crying. She seemed to argue with the adult (her mom?) she was with about the world being unfair, but she had such an aura of strength, determination and a will to live which we could sense… that told us that there is an admirably mature character behind her face.
We would like to donate some of the money so generously given to us by our friends and family for our honeymoon for Mui’s Disneyland trip.”
We’ve never expected support, or taken it for granted when it’s been given.
That’s why, 11 years later, the memory of our 11 days in LA & Disneyland still bowls us over!
Find more recollections check out our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GirlBehindTheFace
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