Redrawing the "picture" of my mother.

1. My mother is a difficult and hot-tempered woman. Instead of being gentle and smiling like the aunts and uncles in the neighborhood, she often gets angry and nags about trivial things. For example, I never like napping, so I always come up with clever (in my opinion) "strategies" to sneak away whenever I want. Unfortunately, time and time again, if she doesn't find me at the door, she'll find me out in the midday sun, bareheaded, catching grasshoppers and dragonflies. The result is that every time I bring her home, she spanks me.

Despite being a girl, I had the personality of a real boy. Instead of following my mother around like the other "girly girls" in the neighborhood, I often challenged the boys to bike races or see who could climb trees faster. Sometimes I won, making my friends envious, but mostly I lost, my hands and feet bleeding, my clothes covered in mud. And the end result was always my mother dragging me home by the ear, covered in injuries.

Redrawing the

My mother never worried or gently blew on my wounds like the mothers in those TV dramas; all I received was a painful beating and deafening yelling. Once, I was so angry with her that I asked if I was really her biological daughter. She just calmly looked at me and replied, "I picked you up from the garbage dump! Eat your dinner quickly so I can clean up and go to work."

2. My father was often away from home, so my childhood was mostly filled with the presence of my mother and me. Every day, my mother would wake me up in the morning, make me get ready and eat breakfast while I was still half-asleep, then quickly take me to school before going to work. Time flew by like the turning wheels of my mother's old bicycle, and I grew up like that. Witnessing my mother's struggles with countless chores, single-handedly managing affairs for both sides of the family while my father was away, I felt immense love and compassion for her.

Therefore, I started doing housework to share the burden with my mother. Actually, cooking isn't that difficult for me. After burning/scorching a few pots of rice, undercooking a few plates of vegetables, and burning a few pots of meat, I was able to cook a delicious meal for my mother, although most of it was... boiled dishes.

The first time my mother ate a well-prepared meal I cooked, her eyes welled up with tears, and she softly said, "My daughter has grown up." That was one of the rare times I saw her so gentle and affectionate towards me. Only much later did I understand that she wasn't inherently difficult, just sometimes a little strict. Because she loved me, she worked hard every day, hoping to earn enough money to give me the best and most comfortable life possible. As I grew older, I realized how valuable her nagging and admonition from my childhood were, because they helped me mature, become independent, and become a responsible person.

3. This weekend, I treated myself to a ticket to see the currently trending film produced by director Ly Hai: "Flip Face 7: One Wish." The film tells the story of an elderly mother and her five children whom she loves dearly. At the end of the film, the voice of singer Bui Anh Tuan brought tears to my eyes: "From the moment I was born until now, my mother has provided for me in every way. She gave me such a wonderful picture, one I didn't fully understand in my childhood. Now that I'm older, I paint my own picture..."

Watching the movie reminded me of my mother. For so many years, she had to shoulder so many hardships and difficulties in life almost all by herself. Although she often grumbled, I never once heard her complain about her struggles.

I grew up studying far from home, striving to pursue my own dreams and ambitions, so busy that I no longer had time to think about my mother. Phone calls became shorter and shorter, and visits home became less frequent. Without me, without my father, my mother would sit alone at the dinner table.

The child who used to say, "I'll take care of you someday," is now forever soaring to distant horizons. I grew up innocently, carefree, accepting all the good things my mother gave me. I thought that all the good things I achieved today were 100% due to my own efforts, but little did I know that my mother had willingly shouldered all the difficulties and hardships on her frail shoulders...

After the movie ended, I quickly got in my car and drove along the familiar road back home. There, I'm sure my mother still stands waiting for me every day. Perhaps, like the song says, I will return to redraw and add more color to my mother's portrait, to mend her pain.

I wish time would stop, so I could stay by my mother's side forever. I stand at the same doorway where she used to catch me sneaking out of my afternoon nap to play, gazing at her thin figure, my lips moving to utter the words "I love you so much, Mom," but I can't bring myself to say them...

Truc Phuong

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