Thanking King with 36 years of unpaid work

Thanking King with 36 years of unpaid work

Grandma Lon Meemetta wipes the floor of the pavillion used by the late King Bhumibol in 1980. (Photos by Chinnawat Singha)
Grandma Lon Meemetta wipes the floor of the pavillion used by the late King Bhumibol in 1980. (Photos by Chinnawat Singha)

PHITSANULOK - Unpaid but willing, a farmer has been cleaning a pavillion once used as a rest area by King Bhumibol almost every day for 36 years as a way to show her gratitude for the King’s development projects in her poor rural village.

Lon Meemetta, 63, affectionately known as “Grandma Lon”, is among hundreds of impoverished farmers at a small remote village of Ban Rak Thai in tambon Chompoo of Noen Maprang district, whose livelihoods have been improved since the King’s visit to inspect Khek River Basin Development Project in Febuary1980. It was one of 13 visits the King and Her Majesty Queen Sirikit made to this lower northern province from 1958-1982.

Lon Meemetta

During the one-day visit, His Majesty talked directly to the villagers to get first-hand information about their needs and how to help them rely on themselves. The King later launched numerous royal initiatives such as allocating land to landless farmers and giving buffaloes to them, including Grandma Lon. He also provided personal funds to build a school in the tambon and distributed Nile tilapia (pla nil) fingerlings to the villagers to provide an alternative source of protein and to help them earn extra income. 

The King rested at the pavillion during his trip. The structure, now old and partially flooded, was built near a reservoir where he released the pla nil.      

Since he left 36 years ago, Grandma Lon said she put up his images at the pavillion to remind people of the King's love for his people. As caretaker, she would find time to clean the pavillion whenever she could almost every day. The venue has become the villagers' spiritual unity and reminder of the King, she added.   

The villagers and Grand Ma Lon have repaired the old pavillion twice since 1980.

“Although there was fighting between troops and communist insurgents at that time, the King still visited us," she said.

"I was grateful for his mercy in giving me the buffaloes and for the many things he did to better our lives. Coming and taking care of the pavillion was just a little thing I could do in return for the King’s dedication for his people.  

"It makes me happy and I will do it while my body allows me to. Every day, now, I still think he has not left us. He will stay on in my mind and everyone’s forever.”


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