This fictional story draws inspiration from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in northern Vietnam over many years, and particularly from recent collaborative research carried out in Vietnam’s Thái Bình Province as part of the project, “Living Together with Chronic Disease: Informal Support for Diabetes Management in Vietnam.” The project is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and conducted as a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, the University of Southern Denmark, and Thái Bình University of Medicine and Pharmacy (https://anthropology.ku.dk/research/research-projects/current-projects/living-together-with-chronic-disease/).