The tragedy of two women sharing a husband for nearly half a century

(Baonghean) - Two women who are complete strangers, sharing the same man who passed away nearly 20 years ago, can be seen as two pieces of the same fate, accompanying each other until the last years of their lives.

In the middle of Khe Bo village, Tam Quang commune (Tuong Duong) there is a small, old and dilapidated house like its owners - Mrs. Ho Thi Xuan (93 years old) and Le Thi Thanh (76 years old). They are the wives of Mr. Le Van Quy (died in 2000), now their two old bodies are withering with the years, the last part of their lives have suffered so much bitterness and hardship. Mrs. Xuan is very old and weak, unable to sit up by herself to eat and take care of her personal hygiene.

Eating is also irregular, one meal a day, one meal a day is skipped. Summer has come but she still wears a sweater, wraps a scarf around her head and covers herself with a velvet blanket. Mrs. Thanh is no longer healthy but is quite lucid, still remembers many details and events of her life over the past 50 years. The two old bodies depend on each other, and daily expenses mainly depend on Mrs. Xuan's pension for the elderly.

The small house of Mrs. Ho Thi Xuan and Le Thi Thanh in Khe Bo village, Tam Quang commune (Tuong Duong). Photo: Ho Phuong

Ms. Thanh shared: “Our story is very long and full of twists and turns, with both smiles and tears, but there are few smiles and many tears. People often say that sharing a husband brings many contradictions and discord, but for us, there are almost none...”. According to Ms. Thanh’s memory, Ms. Xuan is from Quynh Luu, and Mr. Quy is from Thanh Chuong. The two met and came together in the lowlands, both of them were poor.

In 1952, after their wedding, the couple moved to Khe Bo to find a living. In this mining area, the young couple built a shack by the river to shelter from the rain and sun. Every day, the husband went down to the river to fish for sale, and the wife worked as a rice sifter and water carrier. Their livelihood was extremely hard and difficult, with one day they were full and the next they were hungry, but the couple were always in harmony and loved each other wholeheartedly.

But after waiting and waiting, the wife saw no sign of pregnancy. Then 17 years passed quickly, the woman accepted the fact that she could not "bloom and bear fruit", and could not bear to leave her husband without an heir. Putting aside her selfishness as a woman, Mrs. Xuan decided to find someone else to take her place with the hope that the second wife would give birth to Mr. Quy's children, so that he would not make mistakes with his ancestors, his family, and no longer have to endure the gossip of the world.

Mrs. Ho Thi Xuan is old and weak, even in the summer she still has to wear a coat and a scarf. Photo: Cong Kien

She was willing to step back, accept the scene of her husband caressing and making love to his new wife. After many sleepless nights of discussing the pros and cons, Mrs. Ho Thi Xuan finally convinced her husband to agree to take a concubine. The woman Mrs. Xuan chose to be her husband's wife was Le Thi Thanh - a girl from the same village, poor family and also faced many hardships. In 1969, Mrs. Thanh accepted to be Mr. Quy's concubine, all three of them lived together in a small house by the river.

Those were the years of war, hunger and poverty were always around and haunting, but everyone told themselves to try to overcome. Indeed, Mrs. Xuan did not choose the wrong person for her husband, because after a while, Mrs. Thanh gave birth to 6 children, both boys and girls. Every time a child was born, Mr. Quy was as happy as if he had found gold, worked hard but still smiled and appeared satisfied.

At times like these, Mrs. Xuan could not help but feel sad about her fate, but then this forgiving woman managed to hold it all back to smile and shed tears of happiness. Every time Mrs. Thanh was in confinement, Mrs. Xuan took care of her, cooked food, went into the forest to find nutritious medicinal plants, and increased her milk supply so that her children could be healthy and strong.

Mrs. Le Thi Thanh is still quite lucid, recounting her life story. Photo: Ho Phuong

As the children grew older, Mrs. Xuan and her mother fed them spoonfuls of porridge and bowls of rice, sometimes eating cassava and yam to give the best to the children. With the six children Mrs. Thanh gave birth to, Mrs. Xuan thought that was the happiness of her life, her hopes and sacrifices were rewarded.

I thought my calculations were reasonable, from now on I would continue to work, together with my husband and my younger brother (Mrs. Thanh accepted me as her younger brother) to raise our children. But life is full of irony, in the midst of hunger and poverty, the children often got sick, the family was even more poor. Then the three young children passed away one by one, leaving their parents in pain.

Although she did not give birth to him, Mrs. Xuan was still in great pain, pain because God had brought misfortune upon her husband, pain because her wish was not fulfilled. Luckily, the remaining 3 children grew up day by day, becoming a source of encouragement and happiness for the whole family. Mrs. Xuan and her parents worked hard to raise and care for them, hoping that if they grew up to be successful, they would become good people.

Mrs. Xuan and Mrs. Thanh - the two wives of Mr. Le Van Quy relied on each other in the last years of his life. Photo: Cong Kien

But then, they grew up right when the drug “storm” began to hit Tuong Duong, Khe Bo village was also in the “eye of the storm”. Mr. Quy’s children could not avoid temptation and were haunted by the “white ghost”. One of them got sick early and passed away, the father was so sad that he passed away, leaving behind two old and weak wives and two children who were growing up.

The two mothers were also heartbroken, trying to bury it deep in their hearts. The pain had not yet subsided when their two children continued to fall into drug addiction, to the point of having to leave this life. So, after several decades, the two women were left empty-handed. Now, they have reached the age of “near death, far from heaven”, with no one to lean on, living quietly like two shadows under a shabby roof, relying on each other in the midst of the hustle and bustle of life...

Cong Kien - Ho Phuong