Phong's mother and Hoa had lunch with "burnt" chicken.
Today's meal consisted of chicken - chicken raised in a coop - and a bowl of Malabar spinach soup picked from the garden. The conversation dragged on past noon, so Mom insisted on holding our hands to stay.
- Just a little absent-mindedness and it burned - Ms. Pham Thi Hoa smiled to hide her embarrassment while tearing the chicken into small pieces for her mother - Mother of VNAH Lang Thi Phong.
Phong's mother happily poured us a cup of wine and said: "Today there is chicken, I will drink a cup of wine, you all should drink a cup together, medicinal wine is good for your health" - Her words and gestures were intimate and warm, just like with her children and grandchildren in the family, but later we learned that the only relative of hers was Hoa.
Then even the meal was interrupted by endless stories, making us sometimes happy with the laughter of mother and daughter, sometimes sad with distant looks and even tears.
Phong's mother is 103 years old this year (born in 1922). Time may have taken away her memory, but it still left her with the graceful, gentle features of a wild flower from her past - from her figure to her long hair wrapped in a brocade scarf. At the age of 19, she left Trung Thanh village to follow Mr. Lang Van Tranh in Ngoc Son village, Luong Son commune, to share a home. The sweet time of the young couple did not last long when her husband - Mr. Lang Van Tranh went to war, first against the Japanese, then against the French. For 12 years, there was no news of her husband, the young wife shouldered the housework and anxiously prayed for his return.
Heroic Vietnamese Mother Lang Thi Phong.
Her wish was fulfilled when her husband was lucky enough to return home to reunite with his family after the long resistance war against the French ended in victory. Her happiness was multiplied when, not long after, in 1958, she gave birth to a son - also her only child, named Lang Thanh Quynh. "When he was little, Quynh loved guns and often played mock battles with his friends," Phong's mother recalled.
The happiness of the small family lasted for 17 years until Mr. Tranh passed away due to illness. 2 years later - in 1977, "hearing the news of the local military recruitment, Quynh hid from me to go to the military examination and leave. Holding a gun was the fulfillment of his dream. He left school without even coming back to say goodbye to his mother" - the distant past of the widow returned in the tears in Phong's mother's cloudy eyes.
My husband's parents only have my husband. My husband and I only have one son. My son passed away, leaving me alone...
There was no news of him from then on, and then four years later, news of him came in the form of a death notice. Quynh died on July 9, 1981, while participating in the campaign to eliminate the remnants of the Pol Pot army in Cambodia. “My husband’s parents only had my husband. My husband and I only had one son. My son is gone, and I am left alone” - Mother told us as if speaking to a distant void.
Certificate of National Merit...
In 1994, Lang Thi Phong's mother was awarded the title of Heroic Mother of Vietnam by the State. Her son remains with his comrades at the Martyrs' Cemetery of Tay Ninh Province. The keepsakes left for her are the certificate of merit from the Fatherland and the death notice.
The Heroic Vietnamese Mother lived alone, miserable and quiet under a thatched roof in Ngoc Son village. One stormy night, the wind blew into the house, sweeping both of her son's keepsakes up to the treetops. The mother frantically ran after them, but when she got them down, they were all torn to pieces.
... and the death certificate was "torn to pieces".
After nearly a decade of living in her own shadow, Phong's mother finally had a second family, a home where she could rely on, simple yet warm. From then on, the two women, not related by blood but in the same situation, relied on each other, calling each other the sacred words mother and daughter.
'Hoa is the daughter of a martyr, the granddaughter of a Heroic Mother of Vietnam' - Phong's mother's sudden words in the chaotic memory made us stunned, and Hoa's eyes reddened...
"Hoa is the daughter of a martyr, the granddaughter of a Heroic Mother of Vietnam" - Phong's mother's sudden words in the chaotic memory made us stunned, and Hoa's eyes reddened.
She spoke on behalf of her mother: “I have two mothers. Phong’s mother here and my biological mother who is living with my sister’s family in the next village. My sister was born in 1966, 2 years older than me. My mother told me that when she was 5 months pregnant with me, my father - Mr. Pham Hoang Quy, went to the battlefield. My father also left without saying goodbye to the family. In 1971, my father sacrificed himself on the Quang Tri front... I did not know my father’s face. Much later, I was able to visit my father at Truong Son Cemetery twice. My father was also an only child. In 1995, my grandmother Pham Thi A was awarded the title of Heroic Mother of Vietnam. I lived with my grandmother since I was little... she did not have any relatives... she often cried for her children.” - Ms. Hoa recounted intermittently in tears.
In 1987, Ms. Hoa married Phong's mother's maternal cousin. Two years later - in 1989, the young couple asked to take Phong's mother home to take care of her. At this time, Phong's mother's health was much weaker, she could only do light work like cooking and cleaning. Since 2001, her mother's eyes were almost blind, her niece-in-law, who was her sister, took care of her mother's every meal, fetched water from the village well to bathe her mother... "the whole village had one well, had to go early to get clean water".
In 2003, the family sold the buffalo and she took Phong's mother to the city for eye surgery. "A few days after the surgery, my biological mother came to take care of him, and all the rice at home was stolen, so the mother and children had to go hungry" - Hoa wiped away her tears and laughed, recalling the not-so-happy story that became unforgettable memories for the mother and son.
She blamed her fate. It took her 8 years of marriage to have children. Since 2013, her two daughters have been married far away. In 2017, her husband passed away. Since then, the small house in Trung Thanh village has been home to only the two of them, except on death anniversaries and holidays.
Living with and taking care of Phong's mother is a happiness for Ms. Hoa. Because "living with my mother, I feel like I'm reliving the time I spent with my grandmother, who also had a hard life...". And also because of the sympathy and empathy in her heart as a woman, she vowed to take care of Phong's mother for the rest of her life with the love, duty and responsibility of a child.
Phong's mother kept telling us: "Hoa is kind,... takes good care of grandma."
...
If only there were a historical book about the lives of the Heroic Vietnamese Mothers, with deep within their resilient hearts and kind hearts, lies love, nostalgia, and pain. But it is probably too late, because the mothers almost only remember the names of their husbands and children; some mothers have sunk deep into their memories. We end the series here - small stories told by the limitations of language compared to the longevity of sacrifice, forgiveness, humility... of Vietnamese women, of the Heroic Vietnamese Mothers of Thanh land! |
Nguyen Phong
Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/ky-uc-cua-me-bai-cuoi-hai-nguoi-phu-nu-mot-mien-ky-uc-hai-tieng-me-con-thieng-lieng-255158.htm
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