Data Base

Raising Seven Children On Her Own

Life is full of accidents. Some women may think that once they get married, they can have someone to support them forever. May used to be one of them.

May followed her husband from Hubei to Hong Kong ten years ago and gave birth to two daughters. She was a traditional housewife who only knew how to cook, and never worked in Hong Kong. Unexpectedly, her husband disappeared one day. May was really frightened and hurt. The resulting financial burden became her major concern.

She nervously started to work in the one-sex worker apartment for living. “Do you know how the first few days of my work were like? Customers rang the bell but no one was willing to come in. I finally realised the problem when I saw other fellow sisters nearby.” May laughs while recalling her experience. Chatting with us in her room, May is confidently doing her makeup at the same time. She can’t wait to share her interesting past experience. She puts down the eyeliner excitedly and continues, “I thought our job is only to have sex with customers and get paid. I felt pretty silly when I saw other sisters wearing sexy clothes with beautiful makeup, while I was only wearing a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans. I couldn’t help teasing myself.” She is proud of herself for her change from head to toe. She now clearly knows about the needs and minds of different styles of male customers. She even has ways to speed up the whole process, in order to grab more resting time.

May is proud and confident that she has raised her children on her own and they are already secondary school students now. She also sends money to her cousins in Hubei regularly. She says that she has been feeding seven children herself and she does not need to rely on men. “Men are not trustworthy. How can you still have expectations towards men when you see many of them coming here every day?” answers May when asked about her exceptions on love. Her children are also told not to rely on romantic relationships too much but to work hard on their own.

May is living happily as she can support her living independently, feed her family and even support her relatives. She strongly believes that we should work hard by ourselves, rather than relying on others as we have to overcome the difficulties eventually only on our own. To her, one can never find out one’s own ability if there are no any difficulties in life.