Mom's cup of coffee

My mother recounted that in the 1970s, when she was a young woman, she opened a small shop selling noodle soup and filter coffee along National Highway 1, in front of what is now the Trung Luong - My Tho post office . Customers praised the food as delicious. The main purpose was to serve as a meeting place for commando soldiers, providing confidential information and documents for the Revolution.

Ly cà phê của má - Ảnh 1. — Mom sits beside a cup of homemade coffee every day.

Many times, my mother was tasked with transporting documents and weapons cleverly concealed inside fresh coconuts, along with coffee, tea, and flowers, to disguise them. Dressed in a white ao dai (traditional Vietnamese dress) and carrying a plastic basket of coffee and tea to the temple, she managed to pass through many strict checkpoints.

My mother went to the revolutionary base in Cai Lay, bringing coffee to brew herself using the simplest methods of wartime. Those fragrant drops of filter coffee brought her together with a soldier who was a coffee addict. The result of that love was that she became pregnant.

Ly cà phê của má - Ảnh 2. — Mom still regularly makes coffee every morning.

During Tet in 1973, my father was killed. Before going to My Tho to visit his daughter-in-law, my grandfather instructed my grandmother to keep it a secret for fear of harming the unborn child. But as soon as she saw my mother, my grandmother rushed to embrace her, touching her belly with one hand and bursting into tears. My mother put down the coffee filter and suddenly understood, overwhelmed by the bad news. Perhaps that coffee-making session was the bitterest she had ever experienced in her life.

I was born and raised without the warmth of a father's love. My mother raised me alone, and every morning she still regularly brewed a cup of coffee.

Ly cà phê của má - Ảnh 3. — Mother and the author as a child

My grandmother, who was awarded the title of Heroic Vietnamese Mother, has also passed away. On anniversaries of death, holidays, and festivals, my mother and I often offer the finest, most fragrant Vietnamese coffee to the altars of my grandparents, uncle, and father.

Please allow me to offer you a cup of hot coffee that my mother just brewed; it smells wonderful!

(Entry for the "Impressions on Vietnamese Coffee and Tea" contest 2026, part of the 4th "Celebrating Vietnamese Coffee and Tea" program organized by Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper).