Love stories "more beautiful than tears"

Thinking back more than 20 years ago, this land had only shabby houses like mushrooms clinging along the lake, the scenery was poetic but still had something desolate and lonely… The scenes of life I encountered that day still left a vague lingering feeling in me.

When I first met veteran Phan Van Nhung, I had the impression that he was a free-spirited man with a bit of a romantic streak. Belonging to the first batch of B soldiers, Mr. Nhung was quite familiar with the customs and habits of the indigenous people. He said that he could drink wine all night long with him, and pick up food from the trough without any hesitation. The young lieutenant at that time did not expect that his “different” nature would catch the eye of the female artist Y Nhan. The two became lovers in 1971, right in the middle of the fierce days of war…

After the liberation day, Mr. Nhung took his wife back to his hometown on a Honda 67. He thought that everyone would be "dazzled", but unexpectedly, out of nowhere, the news that "Nhung married a jungle man with a tail" had been spread. As soon as they reached the village gate, a long line of people followed. Phan Van Nhung was so flustered that he crashed his car into a tree on the side of the road... When he realized, the head of the cooperative said: She is so beautiful and sings well, it would be great if she stayed to teach kindergarten for the commune!

Mr. Pham Cong Luc (second from left) and veterans.

Mr. Nhung and his wife decided to return to Dak Ngoc. But the life of deprivation and hardship in all aspects caused Y Nhan to die when she had just given birth to her fourth child. Mr. Nhung was left alone to raise three small children, one of whom was still a newborn. Seeing his hardship, his wife's aunt said: "There is Y Gheo, his cousin. If you agree, he will take care of the children in my place..." Mr. Nhung was moved to tears. Y Gheo had "connected" him without any formalities of marriage. He thought that life would be brighter from then on, but unexpectedly, after giving birth to his first child, Y Gheo suffered from kidney edema. Two consecutive pains befell Mr. Nhung, making him so miserable that he thought he would go crazy. To ease his sadness, he turned to alcohol. And then a sad ending came: While fishing, he fell into the lake and passed away forever drunk...

From a certain perspective, veteran Dinh Cong Toi's love life was so complicated that it was even ironic... When he went to fight in the Central Highlands, he already had a wife in his hometown. As a guard, Mr. Toi was responsible for protecting the commanders, including Senior Lieutenant Y My. Seeing the unusual feelings between the two, our soldiers initially just paired them up for fun, but unexpectedly, "a soldier loves his chief" turned out to be true. If the story had stopped there, it would have been normal in the circumstances at that time. But then, another "chief" also fell in love with him - that was Y Liu. Y Liu had studied at the 1st Army Officer School and then returned to his hometown to fight... After liberation, two women followed him to village 7, Dak Ngoc commune to start a career. The "first wife" from the North came to advise him to return to his hometown, but he decided to stay... For many years, the two women have been living under the same roof in harmony. His love life reminds me of the miracle in the fairy tale "three vegetable-headed men"...

It has been many years since the plight of veteran Luu Cong Huyen still resonates with me. In the small, hot, dimly lit thatched house, it felt as if his body was molded from wax…

It has been 15 years since Luu Cong Huyen suffered from a strange disease: At first, his legs shriveled up and then became paralyzed; his whole body was covered with lumps. They grew larger and then burst, oozing a creamy, oily liquid. He knew he had the after-effects of Agent Orange, but knowing this, he had no money to go to the hospital, so he had to lie in one place and wait to die. We were moved to tears when he told the story of Mrs. Y Xuan... Y Xuan was from Gie Trieng, a former soldier. They met during the war and after nearly 30 years of living together, they had 8 children. The strength of a sick woman, working hard in the fields and gardens to raise so many children, plus a sick husband, was beyond imagination. However, no one ever heard her complain. I returned to Gia Lai and had not yet written a line about Luu Cong Huyen when I suddenly received a letter informing me that he had passed away.

Although he is over seventy years old, Mr. Pham Cong Luc still has the humor and fun of a soldier. After all these years, he still remembers me. He told me that out of the 18 couples that made up village 7 in Dak Ngoc commune at that time, 5 “couples” had passed away; 7 “couples” still had their wives or husbands. Mr. Luc was one of the 6 lucky “couples” that were still intact…

“When we came to this land to start a business, each person’s assets were two sets of clothes and blankets that fit in a backpack. Those who had extra were children born in the forest” – Mr. Luc smiled humorously when recalling the old story… Wherever there were worms, we planted them in the ground, built a temporary hut and then planted crops to have something to eat. The hardships and shortages were understandable, but the most painful thing was not being able to visit our homeland after so many years away.

“It has been several years since liberation, but my wife and I still have not been able to go home to meet our relatives. After much hesitation, we finally decided to go. The difficulty now is what gifts to give to my younger sisters. Well, I will take a risk, so I bought each of them a fake gold ring. Who would have thought that my brother, who had lived in the South for so many years, would give his younger sister fake gold! All of them kept it carefully. It was not until several years later that I wrote a letter home to confess and ask for their forgiveness… Such hardships and countless deprivations, along with the slander of the world. Those times were really strange. Not just Mr. Nhung, almost all of us were considered to be a couple with something… different,” Mr. Luc said.

The lives of people in village 7, Dak Ngoc commune (now Dak Ui commune, Quang Ngai province) are different from before.

But no matter how heavy and dark life is, there will come a time when it must be brightened... In 1995, Kon Tum Party Economic Enterprise came to help people grow coffee. And four years later, economic life began to improve. From then on, families had the conditions to invest in their children's education... The difficult family situations that appeared in the film at that time - Mr. Luc counted his fingers clearly: "Mr. Phan Van Nhung has one child who is a military officer, 3 children are civil servants. Mr. Luu Cong Huye has one child who is a teacher, the other children, although they stay at home to make coffee, all have a good life. Mr. Dinh Cong Toi is the same. The families that were considered difficult at that time were like that, other families like Mr. and Mrs. Tran Xuan Lanh - Y Xa had up to 10 children, all of whom were doctors, officers, civil servants...".

The sun was at its peak, but Mr. Luc and Mr. Lanh were still enthusiastically leading me to visit the coffee gardens of the “children and grandchildren” to tell me… Mr. Luc said that from the cradle of village 7 and village 8, it has now grown into 202 households with 9 ethnic groups “from the headland of the country to Ca Mau cape”. What he said reminded me of the song “Husband and wife in harmony… village in harmony, country in harmony”. Applying it to this land, I was suddenly startled by its eternal truth…

Following the lush coffee gardens is Dak Uy Lake, sparkling in the sun like a giant green gem. This large irrigation project was built by the soldiers of the 331st Regiment in the days when the guns had just stopped. They named it “Spring Dam”. What a romantic and foreboding name!

Ngoc Tan

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/xa-hoi/202507/nhung-moi-tinh-dep-hon-nuoc-mat-33a0e9d/