A THAI man and his girlfriend, who amassed around 7.8mil baht (RM943,814) by working illegally in Japan for 15 years, were shocked to find that his mother had squandered all the money, China Press reported.
What was worse was that he was left to shoulder his mother’s debts and his long-time girlfriend left him as a result.
The man shared the heartbreaking story on Facebook, saying he travelled to Japan with his girlfriend in 2010 to work as undocumented labourers.
Having lived frugally, they managed to save 7.8mil baht to be sent home to Thailand.
Due to their undocumented status, they were unable to keep the money in a bank account in Japan, instead requested their employer to transfer their wages directly into his mother’s account in Thailand.
Now in their mid-thirties, they decided to return to Thailand due to the man’s worsening health.
When he got home, he was devastated to find that the money was all gone.
What was worse was that half of the missing sum belonged to his girlfriend, who struggled alongside him in Japan all those years. The woman ended the relationship.
The nightmare did not end there. Just days after he returned to Thailand, creditors appeared.
He found out that not only had his mother used up all the money, but she had also taken out multiple loans in his name.
Instead of showing remorse, the mother threatened to harm herself.
Unable to cope with everything, the man moved out. A month later, the mother showed up again to demand that he repay the debts, once again threatening to kill herself if he refused.
On Facebook, the man expressed deep guilt towards his ex-girlfriend, saying the two of them spent the best years of their lives together, working tirelessly in a foreign country, only to have their lives destroyed by the reckless actions of a family member.
The story garnered sympathy for the man across cyberspace.
(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)
