Spring, missing mom… | SAIGON GIAI PHONG NEWSPAPER

Tet is perhaps the most sacred moment for people and families to reunite. Tet is also the time for each person to "Review the past - Know the present", turn to the roots with gratitude to ancestors and grandparents who have built and taught their descendants cultural traditions and good moral values, as well as look to the future with faith, optimism, and wishes for good things and luck in the new year...

This Tet, my heart feels lighter, no longer tearful like the past Tets, every time I think about my mother - the person I love most in the world.

Time flies, 3 years have passed since the sad Tet when my brothers and I lost our mother. I remember that Tet, the Tet when the Covid-19 pandemic spread to every hamlet, every corner... Knowing the danger of the pandemic, my brothers and I were still very cautious and careful because our mother was over 60 years old. My mother was healthy and had no underlying diseases. Normally, she was satisfied with her job selling small groceries in front of the house, selling small and miscellaneous items to people in the neighborhood. The pandemic came, so we all wanted my mother to stop selling to avoid contact with the source of infection. Although we were so careful, in the end, we could not avoid it. The house next door had a neighbor who worked as a driver. He traveled a lot and tested positive. My whole family was also infected because the two houses were next to each other, only separated by a B40 net.

Young people like us quickly overcame it. As for our mother, she did not survive! On the twenty-seventh day of the Lunar New Year, my family was shrouded in mourning. My mother returned from the hospital with only a mere urn of ashes! My tears never stopped flowing until the following Lunar New Year. Every time Tet approached, a heart-wrenching sadness rose in my heart. I missed my mother! During the following Lunar New Year, when I saw my sister (who resembled my mother the most from her face to her gait) picking mai leaves in the front yard, I burst into tears. Looking at my nephew, her son, who was about to get married during the peak days of the pandemic, I felt so much love that I could not express it. I remember that time, he called my mother on video call in the hospital, when she woke up: "Grandma, please get well soon and get married for me, grandma!" I remember, when I gave birth to my little girl before the Covid-19 pandemic spread, due to the nature of my work, I had to send my daughter to her grandmother, and my mother was the one who single-handedly took care of her every meal and sleep. When my child learned to call out "Quái, Quái, Quái"... that was also the time when I was numb and had a sharp pain in my chest, because my mother was no longer there.

At first, when my mother passed away, I hated my neighbor very much. I cried and hated him for being so careless that he infected my whole family. I haven't seen him since then. Every Tet holiday after that, I just saw him drinking and laughing like that while I lost my mother. I hated him so much. But this Tet holiday, after calming down, I realized that no one wanted that.

Looking at the pots of marigolds blooming brightly, I still miss my mother.

This Tet, looking at the jar of pickled onions my sister made the way my mother taught her, then the pot of braised pork and duck eggs the same way my mother did, the way my sister set up the family altar for Tet, to the tray of five fruits on the altar... everywhere I looked, I saw my mother's figure. I imagined my mother busily sweeping the yard, my mother tiptoed to pick each apricot leaf, carefully holding each flower bud for fear of breaking it. Looking out to the third row, I saw my mother's figure busily moving each pot of chrysanthemums and marigolds to both sides of the path, as if I could hear my mother's voice echoing: "This year's marigolds are so beautiful!" Those were pots of marigolds that my mother planted herself. Every year, my mother waited until around October, when the north wind was gentle and the floodwaters had just receded, she sowed the marigolds. Then she watched the growth of the plants and picked the tops so that the plants would sprout many buds and produce many flowers. When Tet was over, my mother picked the old marigolds and dried them, saving them for the next Tet to plant again. My mother is very good at growing Tet flowers, so every year during Tet, my house is bright with the yellow and red colors of marigolds. Every full moon of the twelfth lunar month, my mother watches the weather to pick apricot leaves. She says we have to pick according to the flowers and buds. If the weather is cold, we should pick on the full moon or the 20th of the twelfth lunar month, so that the apricot blossoms bloom exactly on the first day of Tet. Thanks to that, every year the apricot blossoms bloom bright yellow on the first day of Tet. My mother says that if the apricot blossoms like that, our family will have a very lucky year. My mother doesn't teach us much, but we are all familiar with those familiar things, remember them, and follow them.

During the old Tet holidays, my mother often picked old hibiscus flowers to dry and save for the following Tet holidays. Now my sister is the one who inherits her mother's responsibility to grow flowers for Tet.

This Tet, my porch is also filled with the colors of apricot and marigold flowers, but those are pots of flowers planted and picked by my sister herself. On the 30th of Tet, my family also has a tray of offerings to welcome our ancestors like when my mother was alive, there is still braised meat, pickled onions, stewed bitter melon, and all kinds of cakes and candies made from my mother's recipe. Looking at those familiar things and looking at my brother, sister, and grandchildren, I feel a sense of comfort. Because I understand that no one can avoid the law of life and death. And I see my mother still present here, in my sister's face, in my brother's voice, her blood always flows in each of us, the good cultural values of Tet as well as the way of life and kind behavior that my mother taught us are still preserved. We still promise our mother that we will live a good life, worthy of her birth and upbringing and the good things she taught us during her lifetime.

NGUYEN KIM BONG

Cao Lanh City, Dong Thap

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