Thảo’s death explains why she was blacked out in Bui’s family portrait, and Bui makes it clear that she herself was a sort of replacement for her sister, a way for her parents to cope with the trauma of losing a child. Like Tâm’s birth, those of Bui’s other siblings take place under difficult circumstances. Má and Bố’s lives do not stop for their children; rather, they deal with war and pursue their careers, and their children are only born along the way. In contrast, Bui’s son’s birth is an essential and defining event in her own life—it even changes her life’s course by convincing her to write this book. Perhaps Bui shines a light on Má’s six births in order to show that, in retrospect, they were more important and life-altering than they may have seemed at the time.