When Robert Yen, 23, graduated with a degree in Marine Biology at University of Papua New Guinea last Friday, his mother celebrated alone hundreds of kilometres away in Madang.
Not able to pay her way to Port Moresby to witness her son’s special moment, she spent an emotional day at work feeling proud of him yet missing him terribly.
“I wish I was there for his graduation. I miss him. I should be there for him,” said Therese Yen, a librarian at Divine Word University.
“I thank the Lord for everything.”
Her son’s graduation is a just reward for years of struggle for this single mum to raise four sons and educate them after her husband abandoned them for another woman in 1986.
Forty-year-old Therese comes from Dimer village on the north coast of Madang. She trained as a librarian at the former Administrative College in Port Moresby and had worked in public libraries in Port Moresby, Goroka, Lae and Madang before coming to Divine Word.
She said Robert’s father walked out on them in 1986 soon after enrolling Robert to begin his education at Lutheran Day Primary School in Madang. For Therese who lives at Biliau settlement near Madang Airport, it was a physical and emotional struggle for her to raise her four young boys.
“I struggled hard to pay for their school fees,” she said. “I never thought of getting them out of school when things got tough.”
A woman of faith, she drew strength from her prayers.
There were times though when she really needed help, especially with school fees, and she is very grateful to the people who had helped her in those times.
She said the past presidents of Divine Word University helped her by loaning her money from the University for her children’s education.
“I want to thank the presidents and Sr Jeanette Martella who had helped me.
“As a mother, I did not want my children to dropout from the education system.”
She said Ok Tedi sponsored Robert’s studies from Grade 12 at Malala Secondary up until his third year at the University, as part of his father’s condition of employment.
However, last year Therese had to come up with K1, 050 to pay for his final year of studies. She was thankful that in Port Moresby, a relative of Robert had become his guardian.
Their struggles however, only motivated Robert, a gifted student, to excel in his studies. She said one of her proudest moment was after the 1997 Grade 12 exam when Robert became the top student in biology in Papua New Guinea.
She recalled some of the early hardships she had to go through with her son.
She said when Robert was a child he was asthmatic and she had to spend countless hours of sleepless nights caring and worrying over him when he had his asthma attacks.
“I was concerned and took him to the private doctor to treat his asthma.”
She said it cost a lot of money, but she was prepared to pay for his son’s health.
She also recalled the day Robert broke his leg in a soccer game. He was in Grade Six and his friends took him home and left him there until his mother came home after work.
“I struggled to get him to hospital. I had to get relatives to help me.”
During that time, she had to leave work often to attend to him.
Therese described Robert as a quiet, easy going and friendly person.
“He is a great reader yet a humble person.”
“I am very happy for him.
“What he aimed for, he has achieved.”
“Oh, I only wish I was there with him,” she repeated.
Robert is second in the family. Her first son is studying at Lae Technical College, the third is a heavy diesel apprentice who recently graduated from Mount Hagen Technical College and the last is doing Grade 8 at Lutheran Day.
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