On My Brothers’ Shoulders

One evening in 1952, a young woman walked down to the Mekong River carrying her baby boy in a homemade basket. She lit a candle and stood it in the basket, then set her baby adrift on the stream. Miraculously, the child was rescued by a fisherman and taken to a Catholic mission on the island of Cu Lao Gieng. The little boy was named Ty, meaning “billion,”, because his chances of surviving were a billion to one. This is the story of that one-in-a-billion chance.