We grew up to be the people we are today thanks to our mother's hard work and immense love. Each Vu Lan season brings a deeper understanding of her nurturing and upbringing, and a greater debt of gratitude to our parents.
My mother worked hard and made sacrifices so that we could get an education and become decent people. (Image for illustration purposes only - from the internet.)
My mother was born and raised in a poor rural area. In her youth, she was a beautiful and resourceful girl, which caught the eye of my father – a young man from a poor family who, despite his circumstances, had received a good education.
When my father went all the way to the North to study electrical engineering, my mother was left alone at home to take care of my grandparents and three young children. Providing food and clothing for the whole family, and paying for the children's education, almost completely exhausted my mother's strength.
After finishing his studies, my father took a job in Nghe An province, but the salary was meager, and with my parents having me and my younger sister, our family life didn't get much easier. For decades, my father worked far from home, and my mother single-handedly managed both sides of the family, taking care of my grandparents and raising us children.
In my childhood memories, my mother's image was one of worry on her face and hurried gait. I always wondered why she was always in such a rush, and only as I grew up did I understand that without that hustle and bustle, my five siblings and I wouldn't have been raised and educated as well as we are now.
From early morning, my mother would secretly get up to light the fire and cook breakfast for the whole family. By the time we woke up, she had already gone to the fields. Dropping her carrying pole from her shoulders, she would chop vegetables and cook food for the pigs and cows. On her old bicycle, she would travel throughout the village buying beans and peanuts from the villagers to resell. With little capital and no means of transportation, the income from this agricultural trade was negligible compared to the family's expenses.
Vu Lan - the season of filial piety, the season of gratitude, remembering the kindness and nurturing of parents.
My house is only a few kilometers from the sea, and my mother often joins the other women in the area to gather clams and mussels to earn extra income... My mother worked various jobs, rarely getting any rest, but with a large family and all of us siblings at school age, her shoulders were burdened with worries.
Perhaps because life was so hard, and she had to shoulder so many responsibilities alone, my mother became irritable. She didn't know how to express sweet words of love to us. Our mischievous antics only made her more annoyed and angry. There were also many times when, because of our naughtiness and laziness in studying, we received severe beatings from her.
I rarely saw my mother cry, but when I woke up in my hospital bed after surgery, I found her slumped beside me, her eyes red and sunken with worry. And I understood that deep within that strong, resilient woman lay boundless sacrifice and love for her children. My mother loved us in her own unique way.
My sisters and I grew up under our mother's tireless care. We went to school, graduated, got jobs, got married, and took care of our little families... Life swept us along, and only when we looked back did we realize with a shock that our mother's hair had turned gray, and her once beautiful face was now only marked by wrinkles and age spots. My mother is now over 70 years old; she looks older than her actual age, and frequent hospitalizations have made her a familiar face to the doctors and nurses.
Wearing a vibrant red rose on one's lapel is a sign of good fortune, as it symbolizes that each day one has a father and mother is a day of peace and happiness.
Although we're not wealthy, my sisters and I now have enough to take care of our parents' daily lives and when they're sick. But it seems that our mother's whole life has been filled with hardship and poverty, so now that she has more, she's not used to it. She only wears nice clothes for special occasions; household items we buy are put away, only brought out when guests come over. She even saves the best food for her grandchildren, even though she knows they lack nothing these days.
Another Vu Lan season has arrived, and my mother has grown a little weaker with age. Nevertheless, we are still luckier than many others because we get to wear a vibrant red rose on our chests during the "Rose Pinning Ceremony," a way of showing gratitude to our parents. Bringing the children home to be with our parents during this festival truly makes us realize that every day our parents are alive is a day of peace and happiness.
Bao Han
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