Touching journey of giving restored portraits of martyrs

Bring you guys home!

On the historic days of July, TeamLee group of young man Le Quyet Thang, born in 1991, from Nghe An brought martyrs' memorial photos to give to martyrs' families in Nghe An and Ha Tinh .

Receiving the color-restored portrait of her son – Martyr Nguyen Van Dong, born in 1957, in her hands, mother Nguyen Thi Ba, 96 years old, residing in Thanh Chuong district, could not hide her emotion. Seeing the photo of Martyr Dong in a dark blue military uniform sitting next to her, Ba's mother was filled with tears.

Mom cherished the color photo of him and told him she would keep it carefully, and hug it every time she slept. “This is my son Dong. He used to be handsome and a good student. But he left me too soon. I am still here but you are no longer here…”, Ba’s mother’s eyes filled with tears.

Restored portraits of martyrs were given to their families by TeamLee group.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Tinh, Ba's mother's third son, his mother's memory is not as sharp as before, sometimes remembering, sometimes forgetting. "But there is one thing my mother never forgets: every morning she looks up at the altar, where Dong's portrait is placed, and talks. Her eyesight is so bad that she can hardly see his picture anymore, but now thanks to the restored photo, she can see him more clearly. The family is extremely grateful to TeamLee for restoring Dong's photo and hopes that many families of martyrs will receive this meaningful gift," Tinh said with a choked voice.

Receiving two photos of her two martyr children, Vietnamese Heroic Mother Nguyen Thi Thanh could not hold back her emotions and burst into tears. This year, she turned 94 years old, but she never stopped missing her two children. She had two sons who were martyrs, one was a youth volunteer, the other was a soldier in the Southwest border. Her cries brought tears to the eyes of everyone present. Receiving two photos wrapped in the national flag, Thanh's mother choked up and said: "Nhan, Chan, come back to me,...

The emotions of the relatives when receiving the martyrs' photos are hard to describe. There are sadness, tears and happiness. Because after the martyrs pass away, the relatives only have one wish, which is to have the photos placed on the altar. But sometimes, that wish makes them ache for decades when they cannot fulfill it. The time-stained photos restored by TeamLee group somewhat ease the pain of the martyrs' families.

More than 300 photos reached relatives

After more than 1 year of implementing the Free Photo Restoration Project to help families of martyrs who died in wars in Vietnam, TeamLee group has restored about 300 portraits of martyrs. Currently, the group has 12 members, but 9 members are in charge of photo restoration, 3 other members are in charge of communication and logistics.

In particular, in the gratitude journey this July, TeamLee group will present 17 reconstructed portraits of martyrs in Nghe An and Ha Tinh...

Accordingly, Mr. Le Quyet Thang is the one who initiated the idea of ​​restoring martyrs' photos for free to give to relatives. This young man's main job is interior design. However, in his spare time, he edits photos for free for many people on social networks, combines photos of deceased relatives through reunion photos; and restores old photos.

TeamLee group presented portraits of 2 martyrs to Vietnamese Heroic Mother Pham Thi Thanh in Nghi Tan ward, Cua Lo town, Nghe An province.

Talking about the opportunity to restore photos for martyrs, Mr. Thang said that late at night on April 30, 2022, while surfing the internet, he saw a comment from a nephew who wanted to restore a martyr uncle. After carefully reviewing the information, he saw that behind the pencil sketch was the story of that martyr uncle, who died on the battlefield before liberation. Now there is only a black and white pencil sketch left as a memorial photo. He wanted to be supported to have a more "real" photo of his uncle. That same night, Mr. Thang completed the restoration of the color photo of the martyr and decided to go to the house to give it to the family.

According to Mr. Le Quyet Thang, the free photo restoration project to help families of martyrs' relatives started on June 20, 2022. The initial goal was only 75 photos, because at that time it was very difficult to contact the families of martyrs' relatives, most of whom were elderly. The most difficult things were the old photos, the lines were lost; the pencil sketches, the ink had faded, the lines were not realistic, the group had to restore the portraits based on the descriptions of the relatives.

Holding her child's photo in her hand, the Vietnamese Heroic Mother could not hide her tears.

Mr. Thang said that restoring each photo takes about 6 hours. However, there are some photos that are so old and damaged that the group has to spend 2-3 days to restore them.

“The sacrifice of the heroic martyrs in exchange for peace and independence for the nation makes us young people always feel respectful and grateful. Everyone in the group is willing to spend time to restore the photos for free as a way to pay tribute to the heroic martyrs and to somehow ease the pain of those left behind... Currently, the number of messages asking for the restoration of photos of martyrs that the group receives every day is very large, but due to TeamLee's limited human resources, it is still not able to respond to all of them. Therefore, I hope that photographers across the country will join in and share with the group, a small but meaningful job,” Mr. Thang added.

Minh Tam - Ha Hang

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/xuc-dong-hanh-trinh-trao-tang-anh-phuc-che-chan-dung-liet-si-a619085.html