Mother's Memories (Last Article): Two Women - A Memory - The Sacred Words Mother and Child

(Baothanhhoa.vn) - When we write these lines, there are only 44 Vietnamese Heroic Mothers (VNAH) still alive out of more than 4,500 mothers in Thanh Hoa. However, very few mothers are still lucid - their memories of life are partly still, partly lost. But deep in the mothers' minds are always the images of their husbands and children who have transformed themselves into the shape of the mountains and rivers, the country. We record stories, sometimes just quiet memories, patched and cherished from the stories, from the eyes and from the silence, as a tribute to the mothers and as a stick of incense for those who have forever passed away.

Phong's mother and Hoa had lunch with "burnt" chicken.

Today's meal consisted of chicken - chicken raised in a coop - and a bowl of Malabar spinach soup picked from the garden. The conversation dragged on past noon, so Mom insisted on holding us back.

- I was just a little absent-minded and it burned - Ms. Pham Thi Hoa smiled to hide her embarrassment and tore the chicken into small pieces for her mother - Mother of VNAH Lang Thi Phong.

Phong's mother happily poured us a cup of wine and said: "Today there is chicken, I will drink a cup of wine, you all should drink a cup together, medicinal wine is good for your health" - Her words and gestures were intimate and warm, just like with her children and grandchildren in the family, but later we found out that the only relative of hers was Hoa.

Then even the meal was interrupted by endless stories, making us sometimes happy with the laughter of mother and child, sometimes sad with distant looks and even tears.

Phong's mother is 103 years old this year (born in 1922). Time may have taken away her memory, but it still left her with the graceful, graceful features of a wild flower from her youth - from her figure to her long hair wrapped in brocade. At the age of 19, she left Trung Thanh village to follow Mr. Lang Van Tranh in Ngoc Son village, the same commune as Luong Son, to live together in a warm home. The sweet time of the young couple did not last long when her husband - Mr. Lang Van Tranh went to war, first against the Japanese, then against the French. For 12 years, there was no news of her husband, the young wife shouldered the housework and anxiously prayed for his return.

Heroic Vietnamese Mother Lang Thi Phong.

Her wish was fulfilled when her husband was lucky enough to return home to reunite with his family after the long resistance war against the French ended in victory. Her happiness multiplied when, not long after, in 1958, she gave birth to a son - also her only child, named Lang Thanh Quynh. "When he was little, Quynh loved guns and often played mock battles with his friends," Phong's mother recalled.

The small family's happiness lasted for 17 years until Mr. Tranh passed away due to illness. 2 years later - in 1977, "hearing the news of the local military recruitment, Quynh secretly went to the military examination and left. Holding a gun was the fulfillment of his dream. He left school without even coming back to say goodbye to his mother" - the distant past of the widow returned in the tears in Phong's mother's cloudy eyes.

My husband's parents only have my husband. My husband and I only have one son. He passed away, leaving me alone...

There was no news of her son from then on, and then four years later, news of her son came in the form of a death notice. Quynh died on July 9, 1981, while participating in the campaign to eliminate the remnants of the Pol Pot army in Cambodia. “My husband’s parents only had my husband. My husband and I only had one son. My son died, and I was left alone” - Mother told us as if speaking to a distant void.

Certificate of National Merit...

In 1994, Lang Thi Phong's mother was awarded the title of Heroic Mother of Vietnam by the State. Her son remains with his comrades at the Martyrs' Cemetery of Tay Ninh province. The mementos left for her are the certificate of merit from the Fatherland and the death notice.

The VNAH Mother lived alone, miserable and quietly under a thatched roof in Ngoc Son village. One stormy night, the wind blew into the house, carrying both of her son's keepsakes to the top of a tree. The mother frantically ran after them, but when she got them down, they were all torn to pieces.

...and the death notice was "torn to pieces".

After nearly a decade of living in her own shadow, Phong’s mother finally had a second family, a home where she could rely on, simple yet warm. From then on, the two women, not related by blood but in the same situation, relied on each other, calling each other the sacred words mother and daughter.

'Hoa is the child of a martyr, the granddaughter of a Heroic Mother of Vietnam' - Phong's mother's sudden words in the chaotic memory made us stunned, and Hoa's eyes were red...

"Hoa is the child of a martyr, the granddaughter of a Heroic Mother of Vietnam" - Phong's mother's sudden words in the chaotic memory made us stunned, and Hoa's eyes reddened.

She spoke on behalf of her mother: “I have two mothers. Phong’s mother here and my biological mother who is living with my sister’s family in the next village. My sister was born in 1966, 2 years older than me. My mother told me that when she was 5 months pregnant with me, my father - Mr. Pham Hoang Quy, went to the battlefield. My father also left without saying goodbye to the family. In 1971, my father sacrificed his life on the Quang Tri front... I did not know my father’s face. Much later, I was able to visit my father at Truong Son Cemetery twice. My father was also an only child. In 1995, my grandmother Pham Thi A was awarded the title of Heroic Mother of Vietnam. I lived with my grandmother since I was little... she did not have any relatives... she often cried for her children.” - Ms. Hoa recounted intermittently in tears.

In 1987, Ms. Hoa married Phong's mother's maternal cousin. Two years later - in 1989, the young couple asked to take Phong's mother home to take care of her. At this time, Phong's mother's health was much weaker, she could only do light chores like cooking and cleaning. Since 2001, her mother's eyes were almost blind, her niece-in-law, who was her sister, took care of her mother's every meal, fetched water from the village well to bathe her mother... "the whole village had one well, had to go early to get clean water".

In 2003, the family sold the buffalo, and she took Phong's mother to the city for eye surgery. "A few days after the surgery, my biological mother came to take care of him, and all the rice at home was stolen, so the mother and children had to go hungry" - Ms. Hoa wiped away her tears and laughed, recalling the unpleasant story that had become unforgettable memories for the mother and son.

She blamed her fate. It took her 8 years of marriage to have children. Since 2013, her two daughters have each married far away. In 2017, her husband passed away. Since then, the small house in Trung Thanh village has been home to only the two of them, except on death anniversaries and holidays.

Living with and taking care of Phong's mother is a happiness for Ms. Hoa. Because "living with my mother, I feel like I'm reliving the time I spent with my grandmother, who also had a hard life...". And also because of the same situation and sympathy in the woman's soul, she vowed to take care of Phong's mother for the rest of her life with the love, duty and responsibility of a child.

Phong's mother kept telling us: "Hoa is kind,... takes good care of grandma."

...

If only there were a historical record of the lives of the Heroic Vietnamese Mothers, with deep within those resilient hearts and kind souls, lies love, nostalgia, and pain. But it is probably too late, because the mothers almost only remember the names of their husbands and children; some mothers have sunk deep into the depths of memory. We end the series here - small stories told by the limitations of language compared to the eternity of sacrifice, forgiveness, humility... of Vietnamese women, of the Heroic Vietnamese Mothers of Thanh land!

Nguyen Phong

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/ky-uc-cua-me-bai-cuoi-hai-nguoi-phu-nu-mot-mien-ky-uc-hai-tieng-me-con-thieng-lieng-255158.htm