[TinyRedLeaf]

Employer turns out to be woman's long-lost father

The Straits Times (24 Jan 08) - A Vietnamese woman searching for her father worked at his home in Taiwan for seven months without realising their relationship.

Ms Tran Thi Kham, 40, travelled to Taiwan in 2005 hoping to find her biological father, who fell in love with her Vietnamese mother in Hong Kong in 1967. Ms Tran's mother became pregnant but had to return to Vietnam for family reasons. She died two months after giving birth, leaving the baby an engraved gold ring and a photo of her Taiwanese father. Ms Tran's father, Mr Tsai Han-chao, did not know of her existence.

After she arrived in Taipei, Mr Tsai hired her to look after his paralysed wife. After the woman died seven months later, Ms Tran was reassigned to a family on Kinmen island. Ms Tran then realised that she had left a bag containing her father's ring and photo at her former employer's home and asked the local police for help.

When Mr Tsai opened the bag, he immediately recognised the items he had given Ms Tran's mother and flew to Kinmen for a tearful reunion.

It's the stuff of epic tear-jerkers. I now know where Taiwanese novelists and TV producers get their inspiration from.