My father-in-law and weekend coffee

My father-in-law was an army colonel who participated in the Ho Chi Minh campaign to liberate the South. After the country was unified, he returned to Hanoi to reunite with his family.

My husband often told me that in the years after 1975, every Sunday morning, as soon as he woke up, he could smell the fragrant aroma of filter coffee mixed with the smoke of silver-packet Dien Bien cigarettes.

He liked to drink coffee, so she searched for places that hung signs "Roasted and ground coffee", which were quite rare at that time, each time she only dared to buy 100g, and only drank it on Sunday mornings. The aluminum filter was ugly and dented, but it didn't matter. Scooping 2 small spoons of roasted and ground coffee powder and pouring in freshly boiling water from the stove, each movement had to be skillful, precise, not spilling, it was also an elegant pleasure on a weekend morning.

During the subsidy period, when everything was lacking, the fragrant smell of filter coffee was so luxurious. It engraved in the whole family's memory the image of a warm, happy, peaceful family, after years of fierce war and the absence of their father. Sunday would be the main day for "increasing production", the whole family would gather to weave wool, seal envelopes, peel peanuts, in an area of nearly twenty square meters filled with the fragrant smell of coffee...

When I gave birth to my first child, my grandfather was willing to quit smoking so as not to affect his grandchildren, but he still maintained his habit of drinking coffee. As he got older, he preferred instant coffee, any brand, but his favorite was VinaCafe's milk coffee. Every morning, he took a packet, mixed it with boiling water, enjoyed it, and sipped it with a few newspapers.

He has just passed away. My mind is still filled with good memories of him. I remember the time he woke up early to prepare Chinese medicine for me to take to work. I remember him taking my motorbike from me to help me push it up the hill into the house so it wouldn’t be too heavy. I remember his hand on my forehead, using qigong to cure my headache. And I remember most of all the image of him every morning at the round table stirring a cup of coffee, so peaceful and serene.

(Entry to the contest "Impressions of Vietnamese coffee and tea" under the program "Honoring Vietnamese coffee and tea" for the 2nd time, 2024 organized by Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper).