Your warmth is still here...

(Baonghean)It has been 43 years since the day the mother heard that her only son had fallen on the Southern front. And for all those years, the mother has been waiting, hoping that one day her son's remains would return to his homeland to rest in peace. Now approaching the age of 100, her vitality is gradually depleted, but the mother has not lost hope. The mother is Ha Thi Duc (born in 1916), in Vinh Kim village, Hoa Son commune (Anh Son) - awarded the title of Vietnamese Heroic Mother by the State...

In the autumn afternoon, the golden sunlight poured like honey on the Giang Man range, the dry, early cold air permeated the poor countryside of the midlands. Following the small, bumpy road, we found Vinh Kim village to visit the heroic Vietnamese mother Ha Thi Duc. She was still sitting in front of her house, her eyes looking out to the alley, further away were the fields after the harvest, then the undulating hills... Behind was the altar, where there was a portrait of her husband and martyr Ha Van Tao - her only son. In the garden, trees were shedding their leaves in the late autumn wind, leaving behind a rustling sound that seemed endless. Mr. Ha Van May (son of martyr Ha Van Tao) - the mother's eldest grandson said: "For decades now, every day in the late afternoon, she sits in front of the house looking forward. It seems to have become an unchangeable habit. There are days when the weather turns cold, her whole body is hot, but she still wants to get up to sit outside for a while."

Mother's face was full of "crow's feet", her eyes were now tinged with smoke. The flow of time and pain had made her body wither. But she still hoped and believed that one day she would find the resting place of her brother Cao, and bring him back to his homeland. Mother told us about the story of nearly 50 years ago, when the US massively sent troops to the South and frantically dropped bombs on the North. In 1965, her brother Cao turned 22, got married and had 2 young daughters. Considering the family's circumstances, as the only son, he was exempted from military service. But her son still wrote a petition in blood to join the army under the General Mobilization order. Aware that the country was in a "boiling oil and fire" situation, the whole nation was filled with fighting spirit, so Mother agreed to let her son go to war. On the day she sent her son off, the mother could not say anything other than praying for him to be safe, to be strong and avoid bullets and arrows. At home, the mother, her husband and children continued to work and produce under the fierce bombardment of the enemy. A few years later, Mr. Tao was allowed to go home on leave and not long after that, the family received good news: his wife, Le Thi Quyen, was pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby boy. The boy was named Ha Van May - the eldest grandson who is currently taking care of Duc's mother.

After a few days of leave, Cao returned to his unit to continue fighting. Duc's mother and family members continued to follow every piece of information on the southern battlefield. Then one day in 1969, Duc's mother was stunned when she heard that Cao had heroically sacrificed himself without knowing that Ha Van May had been born. The day she received the death notice, the ground beneath Duc's mother's feet seemed to collapse. At times, she thought that life no longer had any meaning. But then, thinking and feeling sorry for her husband who was participating in social activities and working in production, and for her young grandchildren, she had to get up to be a support for the family members and wait for the day when the American invaders had to pay for their crimes, wait for the day when her son's remains would return. Duc threw herself into the fields and farms, working hard from morning to night to forget the pain of losing her son. But that pain did not seem to be easy to ease...

43 years after her son's death, Heroic Vietnamese Mother Ha Thi Duc still fondles the hammock to find warmth...

Duc's mother stood up and walked towards the bed in the corner of the house. Sitting down on the bed, her hand searched for something in the corner and then placed it on her chest, where her heart had been beating for nearly a century with so much joy and pain, so much longing and hope... Mother said in a choked emotion: "These are the souvenirs of Cao before he sacrificed himself, brought back to me by his comrades. That was all he had." We asked permission to open them to see. They were a hammock and a sack used to hold rice, sewn from Suzhou fabric, the color of the fabric was worn. Since receiving her son's souvenirs, Duc's mother considered them almost inseparable. Every time the weather changed, it was a cold winter or when she felt extremely lonely and empty, she would take out the hammock and wrap the sack around her body to find the warmth and comfort of Cao - her son. At times like that, I truly felt relieved. The warmth of my son who had fallen on the battlefield gave me the strength to persevere whenever I was suddenly sick.

Not wanting to let Mom sink into her memories forever, we brought her back to the present by asking about her life today. When asking about her family, Mom happily "showed off" that her extended family is healthy, her grandchildren work hard, are obedient, study well and especially respect, love and are filial to her. Up to now, Mom has 2 great-grandchildren (call Mom "grandmother"), and at the end of this year she will have another one. The happiest thing is when a grandchild comes to visit from far away, at first Mom often doesn't remember, because she is almost 100 years old, how can she remember everyone. But when she knows it is her grandchild, Mom is so happy that she cries. Mom's house used to be very dilapidated, but since 1997, the State has built her a very sturdy and cozy house of affection, since then she no longer has to worry when there are storms. Life now is not yet full, Mom is happy because the family is always warm and happy. 12/9 Cement Factory (Anh Son) has taken care of her for life.

On holidays and New Year's Day, the "children" at the Factory would come to visit and bring gifts to their mother. Every time their mother was sick, their "children" would take turns visiting, caring for, and encouraging her, so that she could not just lie in bed forever, but had to try to get up to please everyone. Their mother was able to visit all over the country, to go to the capital Hanoi to visit Uncle Ho's Mausoleum. They met Uncle Tran Duc Luong, Uncle Nguyen Tan Dung and the uncles at the Central Government. When they heard that there was a Vietnamese Heroic Mother of the Thai ethnic group in the Western Nghe An region in the group, they tried to find her and visited her wholeheartedly, and also gave her gifts. The photos hanging on the frame were taken during their mother's visits to Hanoi, at Uncle Ho's Mausoleum, and at the Presidential Palace. In recent years, because she has become very old and weak, their mother has not been able to follow the groups on sightseeing trips like before. Mother Duc shared: "Our country is really happy now, living in peace, everyone is busy working and producing, there is no more hunger like before. The government cares a lot about policy families and ethnic minorities. I am very happy, Tao and many other martyrs have not sacrificed in vain, sacrificed in exchange for a prosperous and peaceful life...".

The sun had set behind the Giang Man mountain range, the landscape gradually turned dark, the land and sky of late autumn in the midlands had begun to get cold. Duc's mother's hands still fondled the hammock and the statue bag - the mementos of her only son who had sacrificed 43 years ago. After so many years of separation, she still felt the warmth of her brother Tao in these sacred mementos to her. Before leaving, we held her hands tightly and wished her good health and a longer life. Duc's mother replied: "I must live on, to see the changes of the country, and to live on behalf of Cao. Live to wait for the day he returns to rest in the soil of his homeland, to his ancestors and his father. The death certificate only said he sacrificed on the southern front, and the south is very vast..." Tears welled up in Duc's mother's deep, opaque eyes. Surely mom cried a lot, because for more than 40 years, more than half of her life, she lived in anxiety, waiting and hoping...

Following the bumpy road back to Highway 7A, in our minds, the image of Mother Duc sitting and fondling the hammock and the statues of her sacrificed son kept flickering, as if searching for the warmth that remained after 43 years. Then suddenly remembering a foreign journalist who once wrote: "I can confirm that no one in the world wishes to receive the title of Heroic Mother, because those are certainly the most miserable women in the world. But Vietnamese history has created such mothers." 44,253 Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, including Mother Ha Thi Duc, all share the same pain and unhappiness. Let's ease some of the pain by helping mothers find satisfaction in the last years of their lives.

Cong Kien