Meeting her husband again after half a century of waiting: A journey of love between peace and tears

North - South unification promise, family reunion

Living with her children and grandchildren in Tan Lac town, Quy Chau district, Nghe An province, Mrs. Luong Thi Thuyet, despite her rare age, her hair has turned white, her body has become thin due to the years, but the memory of her martyr husband - Mr. Luong Van Thuyet - is still intact in her mind, as if it were just yesterday.

Nearly 60 years since her husband, martyr Luong Van Thuyet, sacrificed his life, she has worked hard to raise her children to adulthood. With a kind face and sad eyes, she said: in 1954, when she was 19 years old, her family introduced her to a young man, Luong Van Thuyet, a food officer, a healthy, gentle, and hard-working young man.

Their simple happiness lasted for more than a decade, and they had four children, two boys and two girls. Being knowledgeable, educated, and hard-working, at the end of 1967, Mr. Thuyet was sent to study in Ha Bac (before it was divided into two provinces, Bac Giang and Bac Ninh today).

A year later, in response to the call for national resistance, her husband enthusiastically enlisted in the army without discussing it with his wife and children or saying goodbye. When he entered the battlefield, he wrote a letter home to instruct his family: “I have enlisted in the army. I am sending my bicycle and blanket back. You stay home and try to raise our children, waiting for the day when the North and South are unified, and our family can reunite.”

Mrs. Thuyet with the certificate of merit from the Fatherland in honor of her husband - martyr Luong Van Thuyet. (Photo: Zen Linh)

At that time, the whole country was suffering from hunger, and as a single woman, she had to do all kinds of jobs to earn enough to feed her four children. Mr. Thuyet was far away on the battlefield. Her voice choked up as she recalled those years of hunger, working alone to raise her children. When he left, she was only three months pregnant with her youngest daughter. One sad day in 1969, while she was working in the fields, she received a letter from her family. Having a premonition that something bad was about to happen, she ran home, her legs trembling, holding in her hands the death certificate of her husband, announcing that he had died on the battlefield in the South.

She cried like a child, feeling sorry for her husband lying down without any relatives beside him, feeling sorry for her children lacking the warmth of their parents. For many days after that, she could not sleep at night, thinking of him, tears welled up again. When she regained her composure, she encouraged herself, planted a small belief in herself, hoping for a miracle, that her partner would escape the "rain of bombs and bullets" to return to his beloved home.

Closing a journey, opening up peace

Time passed hopelessly, Mrs. Thuyet and her children accepted the painful reality, he had left his wife and children. Later, she took care of and raised her children alone, while searching for information, asking around when she had the chance, just hoping to receive his remains to conveniently burn incense for the deceased.

Because the time he enlisted was according to the list of the school he was attending and not of the locality, it was difficult to find information about him. Later on, information became more and more scarce, especially when his comrades and friends of the same age, partly due to old age and partly due to the after-effects of bombs and bullets, gradually passed away.

Although the search has been half a century since the day he received his death notice, she and her children and grandchildren have not given up because of the difficulty or the long time it has taken. She and her children and grandchildren still search for news, and whenever there is information that the remains of a martyr have been found on the southern battlefield, they go and ask if it is him.

Heaven does not disappoint those who try, in 2022, from 2 living witnesses (1 from Vietnam, 1 from the US) learned about the tragedy of that year. Accordingly, the enemy used an excavator to dig a large hole in the Trai wharf area ( Tay Ninh province) and put all the bodies of 193 soldiers who died in battle in it, including Mr. Luong Van Thuyet.

From the initial information, the descendants of martyr Luong Van Thuyet urgently searched and contacted the Military Command to verify the accuracy, thereby quickly completing the procedures and speeding up the process of gathering the remains at Ben Cau district cemetery.

Mr. Luong Van Than, Mr. Thuyet's son, shared: After gathering the remains of my father and his comrades at Ben Cau district cemetery, my family of 12 people took my mother to see my father. So after many years, my mother felt like she had been relieved of a burden. Although she could not bring my father back to her hometown to burn incense and take care of him, every year on the anniversary of his death and on July 27, my family packed up and went to Ben Cau cemetery to burn incense for my father and his comrades.

Although she could not welcome him back to his hometown cemetery to pay respects, martyr Luong Van Thuyet's wife no longer had to worry. She was relieved to see him lying next to his comrades at Ben Cau district cemetery.

On a late April afternoon, the sky and earth were bright with sunshine. Mrs. Luong Thi Thuyet quietly lit a stick of incense, her heart feeling light after many years of anxiety. She said that since finding her husband, her sleep was no longer restless, her tears no longer fell in silence. Although she could not bring him to rest in his homeland, she knew that he was lying among his comrades, in the heart of Mother Earth - the place that gave birth to and preserved the sacred spirit of the mountains and rivers.

April - the month of reunification, the month of reunion, the month of hearts finding each other after years of war and separation. The reunion between her and her martyr husband not only closed a half-century long journey, but also opened up a peaceful sky, where love is never buried, where loyalty still blooms in the hearts of those who remain...

Zen Linh

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/gap-lai-chong-sau-nua-the-ky-cho-doi-hanh-trinh-yeu-thuong-giua-hoa-binh-va-nuoc-mat-post546862.html