A guardian angel of the highest order lives in Battambang and his name is Sok Hom.
I met Sok Hom a few days ago. Now in his early 50’s, Sok Hom trained and worked as a medical assistant while living for many years in a refugee camp bordering Thailand. It was there that he learned to speak English. When Sok Hom and his family were repatriated to Battambang in the early 1990’s, he was unable to find work and now earns a few riels providing medical attention and medications to friends and neighbors.
Sok Hom is married to Keo Vich, the janitorial supervisor at Emergency. They have seven children and many grandchildren; they also support five orphans on Keo Vich’s salary of $115/month (about twice the average Cambodian’s monthly wages).
Keo Vich and Sok Hom live a few meters away from a bridge, and Sok Hom was on his way home from town with some friends – on the evening before Chinese New Year he tells me – when he saw a crowd forming on the bridge and below. He watched the scene for only a few moments, before hearing that someone had fallen through the bridge. He saw that the woman was a foreigner and that nobody was doing anything to help her.
Sok Hom ran down the embankment with his friends and saw that the woman was screaming and crying. He held her hand and comforted her, speaking to her in English. He tried to lift her but she screamed more when he put his hand under her back. Eventually, Sok Hom and his friends were able to place her in a small car (?) and bring her up to the road, where the ambulance from Emergency was waiting.
Sometimes the ultimate and irrefutable truth is revealed by the unlikeliest of sources. In my case, it was a man whom I didn’t even know had been part of the story. Being able to thank him in person for coming to my side has been a great gift.
And so, the bridge that I thought – and was told – was the one I had fallen through, is not in fact, the infamous bridge at all. It’s another bridge, one that I’ve already seen. Hard to fathom, but true…
Healing Pilgrim 
WOW
O.M.G. Shivers through my body. My breath stopped as I speedily read through this new entry. My stomach tensed.
Please tell more about ‘the’ bridge…’your’ bridge in BB.
And…HOW did you find out about THIS?
WOW 2.
Yes, the realization sent shock waves through me too.
More about it another time…
xoxo aj
Wow for me, too. It’s such a gift to him that you came back to tell him what happened from there and to thank him for his actions and kindness. Did he tell you that he held your hand? Do you remember it? I want to know how you found him, too. Do you see any changes in your body since you’ve been returning and recollecting?
Love from the States-
Edorah
Yes, he told me he held my hand, tried to comfort me in English, carried me as lightly as possible.. I don’t remember any of that, so it was especially poignant to have him fill in that piece of missing ‘history.’ I ‘found’ him because he is the husband of the woman who is the head of cleaning at Emergency (Vich), and I remembered her well because she used to come in every day, even for a few minutes, just to check on me and hold my hand. She had the sweetest face. She also gave me a sheet of paper with her name and number, and her husband’s, that (go figure) I somehow discovered amongst the papers I’d kept from Cambodia! When Sok Hom picked her up one day, I just went to ask him some questions because Vich told me that her husband spoke English.. and that’s how I started to pick up more details, one at a time. Sleuthing, that’s one of the things I do really well 🙂
WOW…speachless and teary.
What an amazing discovery!
xo A.
yes, really something.. and the discovery project continues still…
xoxo aj
Your writing is soooo beautiful – god bless you!!
Thanks for reading and enjoying!
Hope to see you soon… and to visit the Sand Museum with you and Ana too.