A short tribute to Y-Dang Troeung and Davi Hyder (aka Davy Heder)

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It was with great sadness that we heard of the premature death of our friend Y-Dang Troeung on 29th November 2022. She had been fighting pancreatic cancer for more than a year, all the time continuing her writing and pressing ahead with all her activities. Born in 1980, she was only 42 years old. Although we spent time together only on her few trips to Cambodia, we felt very close. It was her boundless energy that made the photo exhibition “Refugees—40 Years Later”, held at Bophana Center, into an international forum rather than a local one. Perhaps her compassionate nature could best be felt in what she wrote about Davy Heder, an old friend of mine, and a new friend of hers, who also passed away, at the beginning of the pandemic.They never met person to person, yet Y-Dang seemed to have formed an intimate bond with Davy that enabled her to write a much more touching and heartfelt tribute than I could have managed. I can think of no better tribute to Y-Dang than to quote what she said about Davy:

 

“I was stunned and deeply saddened by this news (…). Even though I had known Davi for only a short time, I will never forget the vibrant energy, enthusuasm and wisdom that she exuded even across a computer screen over a spotty internet connection, during our last conversation (…) Davi shared her experience with me about the last months before the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975, about building a bomb shelter under her house. She talked about how the apocalyptic storm of violence that engulfed Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge took over was something that took so many Cambodian people, like herself, by surprise. She told me how she managed to escape from Cambodia before the fall, but had lived in anguish for those four years not knowiing the fate of her family that she had left behind. Finally she told me about her travels to the refugee camps in Thailand when the border finally opened up in 1979, how she had learned the Thai language, enlisted as a relief worker and done what she could as one of the few Cambodian women in the camp who could help translate between Thai and Khmer. She wanted me to know that women and girls had suffered most in this camp. What she had witnessed in the camp—the pain they had endured, as well as the care and love they had shown each other—had shaped her entire life’s path from that point onward. I was humbled by the intensity and compassion with which she spoke about her memories of the refugee camp. This forum is dedicated to Davi Hyder.” **

 

29th November, the day Y-Dang died, was also the 50th anniversary of my first day in Cambodia.

                                                                                                                       ** (copyright: Canadian Literature, Issue 246, “Refugee Worldmaking”, p.144-45)