The Angel of Bang Kwang Prison (24 page)
Read The Angel of Bang Kwang Prison Online
Authors: Susan Aldous,Nicola Pierce
Tags: #family, #Asia, #books, #Criminal, #autobiography, #Australia, #arrest, #Crime, #Bangkok Hilton, #Berlin, #book, #big tiger, #prison, #Thailand, #volunteer, #singapore, #ebook, #bangkok, #American, #Death Row, #charity, #Human rights, #Melbourne, #Death Penalty, #Southeast Asia, #Chavoret Jaruboon, #Susan Aldous, #Marriage
Mr Chavoret Jaruboon, Thailand’s last executioner by machine gun, and my close friend and confidant. Over the years, through his advice and assistance, I have been able to accomplish many of my care-giving projects as he helped me gain access to the prison and outlined the neediest groups of inmates.
© Karl Malakunas
Garth Todd Hattan, an inmate at Bang Kwang who would later become my husband. I remember not being overly impressed when I first saw him, but over time we grew to love each other. After visiting him I would have to go for rigorous walks and scrub my house from top to bottom to work through the frustrations I felt at our not even being able to touch. With several other American inmates he was finally transferred to prison in the United States, where I moved with my daughter Talya to be with him.
© Earl Jay Kolb
Humble beginnings in America. Garth and I lived in our new home for eight months; an old VW camper van, crammed full of dreams.
© Derek Dean
Garth and I at our wedding on the beach at Bird Rock, Monterey, California, 24 November 2003. It was supposed to be the first day of the rest of our lives together, but it didn’t work out.
© Larry Randolph
Single again after the painful breakup from Garth and a near-death experience caused by illness. I refused to give in to despair and found great comfort in newfound friends.
On my return to Thailand I began to work with a women’s shelter where young and first time mothers are always hungry for hugs and personal attention.
My friend Nina and I performing our ‘box skit’—a narrated pantomime based on my life’s struggles. It highlights that love is the answer to all of life’s problems. Performed on Mother’s Day in Thailand, we had most of the women and children, including ourselves, in tears.
© Deborah Eckner
Smiles, laughs and tears shared with a young mother at the shelter.
As well as working with inmates at the prisons, and the women at the shelter, I also spend some time visiting programmes such as the 2006 Programme for Thai Orphans, based at the Dek Oon Children’s Home.
My many commitments and projects are very important to me but so too is my daughter Talya, my own angel.
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The Angel of Bang Kwang Prison Copyright for text © 2007 Susan Aldous & Nicola Pierce. Interviews conducted by Pornchai Sereemongkonpol.
Copyright for typesetting, editing, layout, design © Maverick House. The moral rights of the author have been asserted. All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Maverick House e-books.
E-book edition ISBN: 978-1-908518-00-2 June2011.
