A moment

Sometimes I think that my heart will break in this place.  Usually, I am not expecting it.  Just five minutes ago I was sitting on the verandah looking at the Times online in the cool of the evening ; all was well with the world.  Ponheary walked up the stairs on her 'phone and I heard her saying 'yes, my father and his brother  and aunties; they all died under the regime and she carried on talking for a few minutes - all dreadful.  She came off the 'phone and I asked her who she was talking to because it was too sad.  She smiled and said 'how can I say it through my tears, you cry for me'  I was crying already.  She sailed downstairs and said 'at least life is good now I cannot be sad any more.'  It is too awful to contemplate what has happened, not just to the Ly family but to families all over Cambodia.  We laugh  all the time here, but many of us do it with tears never very far away.