At the end of the day, Nguyen Thi Nhung, 60, in Tan Xuan Commune, Hoc Mon District in HCM City returns to a cramped, dimly lit rented room. In the tiny space, she busies herself washing dishes and picking vegetables, preparing dinner to share with her grandchild. Looking at her living conditions, no one would believe this woman was once a dong millionaire.

At 21, Nhung married. She and her husband owned a house, but after business failures, they were forced to sell it to pay off debts, moving into rented accommodations and taking on all sorts of jobs to survive until an unexpected stroke of luck came their way.

Nhung recalled that in 2006, while working, her husband was approached by a boy selling lottery tickets on the street. He bought 10 tickets to support the boy.

"By the afternoon, we discovered we had won 10 jackpot tickets. Back then, each ticket cost VND2,000, and the jackpot was VND50 million. My husband bought 10 tickets, so we received VND500 million. With that large sum, we set aside VND250 million to buy a house. The remaining money was used to pay off debts, so not much was left."

Nhung became a dong millionaire overnight and no longer had to struggle for a living. She stayed at home as a housewife, caring for the children while her husband continued working as a land broker.

However, the couple’s peaceful period didn’t last long. Seven years after winning the lottery, a series of misfortunes came, plunging their family into hardship.

The family’s bad luck began with her husband facing business troubles, followed by their children falling into vices. They had to pawn and sell their house cheaply, eventually moving to Dong Nai province to make a living.

Later, her husband fell ill repeatedly but lacked money for medicine. When his condition worsened, he was hospitalized and diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. A week after the diagnosis, he passed away, leaving her with unpaid debts.

She confides: "After winning the lottery, our family faced many misfortunes. It wasn’t just constant accidents and illnesses—business troubles forced us to lose our assets. Everyone said that after winning the lottery, we squandered it on frivolous spending, which led to our poverty. No one knew the unfortunate events our family endured."

The dream 

After her husband’s death, Nhung brought his body from Dong Nai to her sister-in-law’s house in Hoc Mon district. There, she asked for permission to hold the funeral on the porch.

Relatives allowed her to bury her husband on the family’s land. Lacking funds, she built a simple temporary grave for him and rented a nearby place to live with her grandchild.

"My rented place is near the house I once bought. Every time I pass by, I look at it and feel sad, lonely by myself. I remember that the house was 4 meters wide, 15 meters long,” she said.

“Now I know I’ll spend the rest of my life and close my eyes for the last time in a rented room. Whenever I recall having had money but now being empty-handed, looked down upon and despised by many people, it hurts so much,” she added.

What she can do now is ‘swallow the bitterness’, keep living, and care for her grandchild, she said. “His father is in prison, and his mother remarried and left. Though I feel sorry for myself, fortunately, the child studies hard and loves his grandmother,” she added.

She has three other children, but they’re all struggling to exist. “If I can’t support them, how can I expect them to burden themselves with me?" she said.

To survive and pay off debts, Nhung takes on all sorts of heavy jobs. She sews clothes and works for local people as a hired worker.

Currently, Nhung’s grandchild is in third grade. After school, the child helps her with chores. In his spare time, the little one assists acquaintances by carrying trays or cleaning at a shop. Seeing the child’s good nature, people often give him noodles, rice, and vegetables.

Nhung only wishes for enough strength to work and support her grandchild’s education properly. She also hopes to save a few million dong to repair her husband’s grave. She sheds tears seeing her husband’s grave sinking and crumbling. Her dream is modest, yet for Nhung she doesn’t know when it will come true.

Ha Nguyen