The day I welcomed you back to my homeland

52 years of weariness…
One day in mid-July, the Vietnam-Laos International Cemetery welcomed a son of Anh Son's homeland - martyr Le Minh Hoai (1945 - 1967) in Hoa Son commune. It has been 56 years since the soldier said goodbye to his family to go to war and 52 years since he fell to enemy bombs and bullets. Now he has returned to his homeland.

His wife, siblings, relatives and children near and far could not hide their emotions, even though they were still very young when he passed away, and the younger generation had never met him. The emotional bond had connected the living and the dead, and the tears kept falling…

Vietnam-Laos International Martyrs' Cemetery in July. Photo courtesy

Hugging the tombstone, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Tu (80 years old) sobbed: “My dear! You came home for one night and then you left, why is life so cruel?”. Then she told in tears: “Hoai and I got married in 1963, after 1 week he left for the army. The day he left, I saw him off at the river wharf, the boat took him down the Lam River, waiting until it was out of sight before returning. I never expected he would leave forever…”.

Her husband went to the battlefield, Mrs. Tu stayed home to take care of production, support her parents and take care of her siblings in her husband's family, for several long years without receiving a single line of news. And then, 4 years later, while working in the fields, someone ran out to report that Mr. Hoai had sacrificed, the young wife collapsed in the rice field... Her husband sacrificed, Mrs. Tu continued to stay in her husband's family to support her parents and take care of her siblings. Three years later, she asked her husband's parents to return to her parents' house in Duc Son commune, later gave birth to a son, now had a place to rely on in the evening.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Tu (wife of martyr Le Minh Hoai) at her husband's grave. Photo: Cong Kien

Trying to hold back her emotions, Ms. Le Thi Luc (62 years old) - the sister of martyr Le Minh Hoai recounted that the family had 5 siblings. Martyr Hoai was the second child, she was the youngest sister. When her brother Hoai died, she was just over 10 years old but she felt the pain and loss when witnessing the collapse of her parents and sister-in-law. That year, she only remembered people saying that her brother died in Vinh Phuc while fighting to protect Noi Bai airport and Hanoi's airspace. Over time, her parents passed away one after another, life was full of hardships and difficulties, so although she missed her brother, Ms. Luc and her brothers had to temporarily put aside the idea of ​​finding and bringing Hoai's grave back to their hometown.

Truong Son soldiers during the anti-American war. Photo archive

When the burden of making a living gradually lightened, the younger siblings decided to look for their brother's grave, but the death certificate was lost, many related documents were also gone, work was almost at a standstill, while they were old. Many sleepless nights, the image of her brother appeared intermittently in her dreams, making Mrs. Luc even more determined to search, even though it was as difficult as "finding a needle in a haystack". With little information, Mrs. Luc and her husband, Mr. Le Van Ly, went to "knock on the doors" of all policy agencies from the commune level to the Central level, unable to remember how many times they took the bus to Vinh, to Hanoi.

Martyr Le Minh Hoai was buried at the Vietnam-Laos International Martyrs Cemetery (Anh Son). Photo: Cong Kien

Not to mention, the file had mistakes in name and hometown, had to be verified many times and DNA tested, finally thanks to the connection of martyr Le Minh Hoai's comrades, the family found his grave in the cemetery of Quang Tien commune, Soc Son district (Hanoi). "Finding and bringing Hoai back to his hometown, our whole family's wish was fulfilled...", Mrs. Luc confided.
Return after half a century
On the eve of the War Invalids and Martyrs Day (July 27), the family members of Mr. Le Van Thinh (born in 1950) in Van Trang hamlet, Long Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) arranged to go to Binh Dinh province to bring the remains of his brother - martyr Le Tuan Anh (1944 - 1969) back to his hometown. Mr. Thinh is the younger brother of martyr Le Tuan Anh, the two are only 1 year apart in age, when they were young they always followed each other to the fields to herd buffalo, glean rice and go to school together. When the war was fierce, his brother went to the southern battlefield, not long after Mr. Thinh also joined the army and crossed the 17th parallel to fight in the South, the two brothers lost contact with each other since then. On the day of return, after the joy, the younger brother's heart suddenly ached when he heard that his brother had died on the battlefield.

Martyr Le Tuan Anh returns to his homeland, his motherland. Photo: Cong Kien

As the children grew up, Mr. Le Van Thinh and his children began to search for his brother's grave. Unfortunately, the death certificate only stated that he died and was buried at the Southern front, and there was no other specific information, while the Southern front was so large and vast. The only way left was to meet and inquire with old comrades, but no one could provide information about the place of death and burial. Asking friends and acquaintances in the South to search, there was no valuable source of information; several times he went to large cemeteries but could not find any tombstone engraved with his brother's name and hometown. At times, Mr. Thinh felt that the more he searched, the more hopeless it became.

Recently, thanks to a fellow villager who specializes in searching for information about martyrs on the Internet, Mr. Le Van Thinh's family was very surprised to learn that martyr Le Tuan Anh was resting in a cemetery in Binh Dinh. He and his children decided to complete the procedures to be in time to go to Binh Dinh to bring his brother back to his hometown for burial before July 27 this year. "The whole way to Binh Dinh, and then from there back to my hometown, I could not hold back my tears. I miss him so much, leaving only to return more than 50 years later with a few remains..." - Mr. Thinh confided.

So, this July, more of Nghe An's children who sacrificed in different battlefields returned to their homeland amid the emotional turmoil of their families...