Daily life of the 'flying penguin' Hoa Xuan Tu

(Baonghean.vn) - One early winter morning we went to Hung Nhan Commune, Hung Nguyen to meet the "flying penguin" Hoa Xuan Tu.The story of the boy Hoa Xuan Tu (born in 1950), who had a severed arm but was still a good student, agile, and especially wrote beautifully with his shoulder and cheek, has been known to many people since the 60s of the last century.He is forever a symbol of overcoming all difficulties, and has been an idol of many generations of Vietnamese people for decades.

In the process of tilling the land, plowing and harrowing requires hands, so Mr. Hoa Xuan Tu has to ask for help from his wife. Mrs. Le Thi Su is 73 years old, although her hands are in pain, she still tries to help her husband finish the field.

This is the step of grinding the soil (making it smaller), this step does not require hands so Mr. Tu does it himself.

The early morning plowing work was finished, and the grandparents returned to prepare for other daily chores at home.

Carry water.

Clean the kitchen and house.

Get straw for the cows to eat.

Keep an eye out for the cow that is about to give birth and in a few months will bring in some extra income for the grandparents.

In their spare time, the two grandparents play with their 5-month-old grandson Hai Dang.

And when Hai Dang was sleepy, he used his feet to rock the hammock to lull him to sleep so that Mrs. Su could do the housework.

Happy moment when he was playing with his grandson.

Duy is 5 years old and is also a grandson. On Sundays he stays home from school and occasionally helps his grandparents with chores.

Mrs. Su is cutting bananas to prepare a meal for the ducks in the backyard.

Mr. Tu is helping his wife carry the banana tree out to the yard. The banana tree weighs more than 50 kg. At the age of 67, he has surprisingly good health.

Mr. Tu had to take a bath because banana sap covered his body. He said he never used shower gel or shampoo and only took cold showers, even on freezing winter days.

After taking a bath, Mr. Tu washed his own clothes while Mrs. Su prepared lunch. "He did almost all the housework himself, except for plowing and harrowing, which he was reluctant to do," said Mrs. Su.

Family lunch. Mr. Tu sat at a separate table which was actually a chair, using chopsticks under his armpit to scoop rice.

Mrs. Su is feeding their disabled daughter. Hoa Thi Sen was born in 1978 and has been paralyzed since childhood. She is bedridden and often sick. Nearly 40 years have passed, but Sen is still bedridden and unable to speak.

Mr. Tu recalls that on December 24, 1967, when he was still a boy, Hoa Xuan Tu went to Ba Dinh, Hanoi to attend the National Congress of Heroes and Emulation Fighters to Fight Against the US to Save the Country. He met and took a photo with Uncle Ho.

The photos of Hoa Xuan Tu and Uncle Ho taken at the National Congress of Heroes and Emulation Soldiers against the US to Save the Country in 1967 were solemnly framed and hung in his house.

Le Thang