The diligent veteran

On the days before the Lunar New Year of At Ty 2025, relatives of martyrs came to offer incense at the Martyrs Cemetery of Tinh Long Commune. Everyone felt warm when each martyr's grave was decorated with pots of marigolds, cockscombs, and heather. The vacant land around the cemetery, which used to be covered with weeds, has now become a vegetable garden and a lush flower garden.

Mr. Pham Tan Son and his wife plant and take care of flowers in the area around the Martyrs Cemetery of Tinh Long Commune ( Quang Ngai City). PHOTO: Y THU

To achieve these changes, veteran Pham Tan Son and his wife, Dang Thi Tham, have renovated the land and planted and cared for flowers since September 2024. For more than 3 months, Mr. Son and his wife have renovated nearly 6 sao of hill land in the area of ​​the Martyrs' Cemetery in Tinh Long Commune, planting pineapples, mustard flowers, star anise, and butterflies. Not only renovating the landscape in the cemetery, Mr. Son has also quietly worked with his teammates to take care of the Martyrs' Cemetery in Tinh Long Commune from 2022 to present. In addition to cleaning and carefully burning incense for each grave, Mr. Son also personally planted hundreds of pots of marigolds to decorate the resting place for martyrs every time Tet comes and Spring comes. Mr. Son shared that the land in the area around the cemetery is barren and infertile. However, with decades of farming experience, I told my wife that we would try to make the resting place of martyrs more spacious and also to make the relatives of martyrs who come to visit the graves feel more warm.

Having celebrated 3 Tet holidays on the K battlefield, the soldier of Regiment 270 (Military Region 5) Pham Tan Son returned to his hometown at the end of 1988 and stuck with farming to make a living. In 2022, Mr. Son was elected Vice Chairman of the Association of War Veterans in Tinh Long commune. More than a year ago, when his 2 children had settled down and had stable jobs, Mr. Son and his wife decided to put aside farming following their children's advice to enjoy their old age. "Mr. Son told me to go with him to the cemetery to grow vegetables and flowers to beautify the cemetery. Seeing his kindness, my children and I were very happy and proud. The children sponsored the couple with nearly 40 million VND to improve the land, plant pineapples, and plant flowers around the cemetery, because my husband and I don't have that much money," Mrs. Tham said with a smile.

Mr. Pham Tan Son has "greened" nearly 6 sao of land around the Martyrs Cemetery of Tinh Long commune with flowers. Photo: Y THU

Secretary of the Party Committee of Tinh Long Commune, Tran Thanh Vong, said that, implementing Conclusion No. 01-KL/TW of the Politburo on continuing to implement Directive No. 05-CT/TW "On promoting the study and following of Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and lifestyle", since 2022, the Commune Veterans Association has built and maintained a model of taking care of the commune's martyrs' cemetery to demonstrate the morality of "When drinking water, remember its source". As Vice Chairman of the Commune Veterans Association, Mr. Pham Tan Son has been in charge of taking care of the martyrs' graves. Not only taking care of the graves inside the cemetery, in 2024, Mr. Son voluntarily renovated and renovated the space outside the cemetery to create a green - clean - beautiful landscape. Mr. Son's work has moved local people and relatives of martyrs when visiting the cemetery and made them feel warm.

Y THU - HOANG PHUONG

Source: https://baoquangngai.vn/xa-hoi/202501/nguoi-cuu-chien-binh-can-man-e25176b/