Your Former Nanny (Pattaya's Pain 4/6)

Naree, Your Former Nanny: Some people carry a love so quietly, so deeply, it grows roots in silence. That’s the kind of love Naree had: for a son that wasn’t hers, and for one she never got to meet. Twenty years ago, you were just a baby when your father, Robert, brought you to Thailand. It wasn’t an act of love: it was revenge. Maria, your mother, had been diagnosed with postpartum depression, and Robert used that as leverage. He bribed the Irish courts, gained full custody, and fled with you. Maria had never planned for a baby. Robert never wanted to be a father. You were born into a world of broken intentions and emotional debt. In Pattaya, Robert rented a small apartment. The landlady, Naree, lived nearby. She had recently lost a child, something that shattered her in ways words could never express. And then you arrived. A tiny, breathing second chance. While Robert disappeared into the night with trans sex workers, Naree stayed behind. She held you. Fed you. Rocked you to sleep. She loved you in the quiet hours, when no one else cared to look. Naree never asked for recognition. She didn’t expect it. But when Kanya, a young trans woman who had once worked the streets, came into Robert’s life and took over your care, Naree stepped back. Silently. Lovingly. Alone again. Then Robert ran off to Argentina, vanishing with a woman he met at a full moon party, leaving Kanya and you behind. And once more, Naree was just a name in the past. But she held on. Not to Robert. Not to anger. To you. Maria never stopped searching. Even after Robert had her framed at Thai customs, planting cocaine in her bag, leading to her deportation and a 20-year ban, she kept sending letters. Letters that arrived at the only place she thought might still be yours: that tiny apartment in Pattaya. And Naree? She kept every single one. She reads those letters sometimes. Out loud. Crying. Not just for Maria, but for the baby she once lost. She visits the small grave often, a simple headstone shaded by palms. And there, she reads her own letters. Letters to the child that never came home. She brings a rattle, yours. A small toy you used to grip with tiny fists. She holds it gently in front of the grave, like a prayer, like a lullaby that never got to finish. Her husband had blamed her for the miscarriage. He left. Never came back. And yet, she found purpose again in caring for you, even if only for a short while. When you returned to Pattaya as an adult, the reunion was quiet at first. A memory hidden beneath time. But she knew you instantly. And something strange happened in her heart: it bloomed again. The grief, the longing... it twisted into something new. Naree fell in love with you. A complicated, silent love. She wants to be near you. She dreams of having a family, with you. It’s not something she speaks about. It just lives inside her. She was the one who found Kanya. The one who reached out to Maria. The one who, after all these years, guided you back to the border between Thailand and Cambodia, where your mother was waiting.