Like thousands of others, Htoo K’Bru Paw came to Canada from a refugee camp in Thailand three years ago.
The family fled Burma, or Myanmar, and on their journey to the camp, they would sleep in the jungle, using banana leaves as blankets.
After a few years in the camp, the family of 14 — the parents and a dozen children — settled in Langley, like countless other Karen refugees.
“She had this amazing spirit,” marvelled Margaret Kunst, the operation director for the PuCKS (Promoting Community through Kids in Sport).
“She was super energetic, and she loved sports, she was a great soccer player.”
She also loved skating and was looking forward to giving hockey a try.
Kunst met the family through her work with PuCKS, which uses sports as a tool to help keep kids in school.
But last year, Htoo Htoo, the name everyone called her, became sick.
The 10-year-old was diagnosed with a blood disorder, and despite a successful transfusion from one of her brothers, the infection was too much for the little girl with the radiant smile and beautiful laugh.
“It was such a long process because they went to the hospital with so much hope but as the months went on, she would get infection after infection,” Kunst said.
“And she would fight it, and she would be good, but then, wham, there would be another one.”
Htoo Htoo fought to the end.
“She never complained,” Kunst said.
“She battled right to the end. Knowing that her family supported her, she was going to fight for them.”
Even when the doctors told the family that their daughter and sister had just a few hours left to live, she battled.
“They thought it would be a couple of hours, but it was 24 hours, she hung on and hung on. Just a fighter.”
The little girl finally succumbed to the complications from the transfusion on Feb. 3 at B.C. Children’s Hospital, surrounded by her family.
“It was just heart wrenching,” Kunst said.
“To come here and have this opportunity for a better life and then have it cut short like that.”
This past Saturday (March 19), the little girl known for her beautiful smile, love of laughter, amazing spirit and energy, was honoured the best way those who knew her could think of — through sports.
“We really wanted to remember her spirit,” said Kunst, who helped organize a cane ball tournament, with members of the men’s and women’s soccer teams at Trinity Western University.
The first annual Htoo Htoo Friendly Sepak Takraw Tournament of Champions was held at TWU.
It featured 10 teams, and around 45 players, from Langley, Surrey and Vancouver.
The sport, also known as cane ball, is a combination of volleyball and soccer, and is very popular among the Karen.
“She was a happy, friendly and incredibly athletic girl who loved her family, friends and she loved all sport,” Kunst said. “She embodies the spirit of the tournament and that is why we named it in her honour.”
Coincidentally, Saturday would have been Htoo Htoo’s 11th birthday.
“She would be very happy; she was in heaven looking down at the tournament enjoying it,” her older brother, Poe Wah, 18, who was the bone marrow donor, said through a translator.
He also played in the tournament, along with another brother, K’Paw Doh.
“It was a chance for everybody who knew her to honour her by playing in this tournament and having fun and remembering her in a happy way,” Poe Wah said.
“She would have loved it because people from the Karen community came from all over.”
The whole family was involved in the tournament, with the family selecting the trophies and medals, and the dad picking the most valuable player.
“The parents were just thrilled that we were able to remember their daughter that way,” Kunst said.
Poe Wah talked about how his little sister was so easy going and never complained.
When the family was going somewhere, with 13 kids — the youngest was born in Langley last year— it was inevitable that not everyone could go.
But Htoo Htoo, the eighth child, never complained.
“That is how she was, easy going and content,” her brother said.
Too many stories stuck out for him to pick one, and it dredged up painful memories, just thinking about his sister, but perhaps the thing he missed most about his little sister was her laughter and great sense of humour, he said.
For more, see page 45.
