My childhood is very closely tied to my dad. It was in the summer when my mother was very far away visiting my older brother that my dad would take care of me by himself.

I was a defiant little girl during that time who always wanted to watch television. I would always just sneak off without my father’s permission to the neighbor’s house and watch television there. My family was very poor back then.

One day my father brought a television home with him as a gift for my seventh birthday. He was really happy and he said to me that from now on I could watch TV at home. I knew that my father must have worked really hard for that.

My father also helped me realize my life’s dream – to one day be in the Alps! I first became fascinated with the Alps when I saw them in a film that I watched with him.

Other than merely knowing that the Alps were in Europe, my father at the time had no idea just like me of how massive and beautiful the Alps were or even exactly where you could find them.

Nevertheless, my father was in love with the Alps, because his daughter also loved them…He said then to his little girl that at least once in her life she should experience the Alps.

Then in August 2012 there I was, a 20-year-old woman in the Alps for the first time. My dream had come true. The fresh air on the summit was so wonderful- I wish my father could have been alive to breathe it himself…

Sent by: Ngoc from Vietnam
Edited by: Kerstin Boljahn