Taiwanese high school student seeks long-lost nanny

Hsu says she hopes to have chance to tell Duwi in person: ‘Aku cinta kamu'


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese high school student posted a long open letter to Facebook both in Chinese and Indonesian, on April 16, in an attempt to look for Duwi, an Indonesian nanny who took care of her from when she was a baby until she went to a kindergarten.

Hsu Zhi-han (許紫涵), a senior at a high school in Taipei, posted the letter with photos of Duwi and her family. She added that she was crying uncontrollably after writing the letter at the beginning of the year, which made her realize how badly she wanted to look for her old friend. The letter begins by explaining that when Hsu was less than a year old, her parents, who were both working during her childhood, decided to hire a nanny from Southeast Asia to help take care of their three children.

"I remembered seeing Duwi every morning when I woke up. She would put me in a chair, let me load milk powder into the bottle myself, and then help me fill up the bottle with hot water,” the letter read. "She would braid my pigtails, play jump rope with me, and take me to the park. Secretly, she would buy me jam marshmallows and teach me her native language and songs.”

"To me, she was like my second mother; I felt very secure when I was with her," Hsu wrote.

“One time she came back from vacation and brought me a teddy bear as a gift for my fourth birthday; I was so happy that I bounced around the house with the bear, thanking her,” the letter goes on.

She recalled that one morning, about a week after she received the birthday gift, she couldn’t find Duwi in the house. Her parents broke the news: Duwi’s work contract expired, and she chose to return to Indonesia.

Upon hearing the news, Hsu stated that she went into her room and sobbed into the teddy bear. “For four years, I was so dependent on her. She was my best friend, like my second mother. How could she leave like that?" After falling asleep in her parents' arms, Hsu woke up to a message pinned to the teddy bear: a note in awkward Chinese that read "I love you."

According to her letter, the teddy bear kept Hsu company for 15 years. She still speaks to Duwi — but only in dreams.

Hsu said that she hopes Duwi is living happily, wherever she may be, and that someday a miracle may bring them together. In that event, she would respond to the remembered note with a bit of Indonesian: "Aku cinta kamu, Duwi."

Update:

After her Facebook post circulated widely, Hsu was able to find Duwi, who told her in their first telephone conversation: “Little sister, you have gained weight….I miss you." Their reunion happened on Mother's Day.