104-year-old mother touched when she found the grave of her son who died 52 years ago

52 years waiting for a child

"Every night when I go to sleep, I think about it and miss it. I just pray to God to let me live longer to wait for it to come back," said Pham Thi Lai (104 years old), mother of a martyr, living in Dai Dong commune, Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An .

Mr. Lai and the portrait of martyr Nguyen Cong Hoa. Photo: Khanh Hoan

In 1969, Mr. Nguyen Cong Hoa, the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Lai, joined the army when he was just 18 years old. Two years later, the remaining son, Nguyen Cong Binh, also volunteered to join the army when he was only 17 years old.

In June 1973, Mr. Lai and his wife were shocked to receive the death notice of Mr. Hoa (a Platoon Leader of the 968th Division), who died while on an international mission in Laos. "At home, there was a shirt that Hoa liked to wear the most. I carefully wrapped it and put it in the cupboard. One day, when I opened it, the shirt had been eaten by termites. A few days later, I received Hoa's death notice," Mr. Lai said.

Since then, for over 50 years, every time the anniversary of her son's death and July 27th comes, Mrs. Lai holds a bundle of incense, stands in front of the altar and prays to find his grave so she can bring him back home.

After her second son also died of a serious illness, Mrs. Lai lived with her daughter-in-law in Dai Dong commune, Thanh Chuong district. At the age of 104, Mrs. Lai had difficulty walking but was still lucid. She said that she and her husband had 7 children, 3 girls and 4 boys. Two of her sons died when they were young, the remaining two were named Nguyen Cong Hoa and Nguyen Cong Binh, with the wish that the country would soon have peace . Every time guests came to visit, she often told the story of seeing her son off to the battlefield and looked forward: "In the village, several people who went with you have all returned, but why haven't you returned yet?"

Motherly love, love surpasses all

A few years after her father-in-law passed away, her husband also passed away. Mrs. Pham Thi Vinh (Mrs. Lai's daughter-in-law) has lived with Mrs. Lai for nearly 40 years. Seeing her mother-in-law always missing and longing for her son who had sacrificed, Mrs. Vinh could not help but feel sad. She left her young child with someone else to look after and cycled more than 40 km to the Vietnam - Laos International Martyrs' Cemetery to look for her husband's brother's grave. Not finding him, she cycled to Nam Cemetery in Ha Tinh to look for him. Whenever she received information about the collection of remains Wherever martyrs went to cemeteries, she set out again, hoping to find the remains of martyr Nguyen Cong Hoa. All efforts were fruitless, so Ms. Vinh wrote letters to the management boards of local cemeteries to ask for help, but to no avail.

Mr. Nguyen Cong Quynh next to the grave of martyr Nguyen Cong Hoa found in Quang Tri

PHOTO: NVCC

The search for her had to be put aside and entrusted to her son, Nguyen Cong Quynh, when Quynh grew up. "The image of my grandmother sitting absent-mindedly on the doorstep waiting for my uncle to return, my mother wandering around cemeteries looking for my uncle's grave, was imprinted in my mind. That was the motivation for me to be determined to find my uncle's grave," Quynh recalled, adding that he went to martyrs' cemeteries, then connected with associations and groups specializing in finding martyrs' graves on social networks to search, but still had no results.

In 2024, a neighbor texted Mr. Quynh that social media had posted information looking for relatives for the grave of a martyr at Road 9 Cemetery, Quang Tri Province, on the tombstone was the name Nguyen Cong Hoa, the unit was Division 968. Mr. Quynh immediately went to this cemetery, saw the grave and then went to Division 968 to check and learned that the unit had 2 martyrs named Nguyen Cong Hoa, both of whom were buried here.

Of which, a martyr's grave from Yen Thanh district (Nghe An) has had its relatives identified; the remaining grave has not yet been claimed by relatives.

Mr. Quynh then applied for a DNA test and in early March, he received the test results concluding that the remains in this grave were his uncle's.

52 years after her son died, a 104-year-old mother found his resting place.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/xuc-dong-me-104-tuoi-tim-thay-mo-phan-con-trai-hy-sinh-52-nam-truoc-185250324223026785.htm