A Cinderella Story

We know it so well: her parent dies, a step-parent enters, and that poor girl's life is changed forever. For the children of poor nomadic Tibetans, losing a parent to accident or disease is common. Regardless of the emotional state of the child, the remaining parent must remarry quickly. It's a matter of survival. And if the step-parent already has children, the grieving child is rarely accepted and usually becomes a 'servant' - the last to be fed and without hope of an education. Young Decou was a Tibetan Cinderella.