Love Letters Forever Green

(Baonghean) -“Still together and full of love nearly 70 years after exchanging their first letters, they still have much to teach new generations about struggle and everlasting love.”

This May, I was fortunate enough to know about the book launch of “Love Memories” reprinted for the second time and the first English version (a collection of 250 out of 500 love letters written between 1950 and 1960) by a couple of writers I have admired since childhood: writer Vu Tu Nam and writer-journalist Thanh Huong.

Only then did I know that the female writer Thanh Huong was from Nghe An, the daughter of a famous scholar - Doctor Nguyen Huy Nhu (also known as Mr. Nhu), from Van Loc village, Thuong Xa commune, Hung Nguyen district, now Nghi Tan ward, Cua Lo town.

Writer Thanh Huong and writer Vu Tu Nam exchanged rings at the book launch ceremony of the English version of "Memories of Love".

The daughter of Mr. Nhu inherited from her father his literary talent, poetry, courage and boldness. (The Mr. Nhu once wrote a couplet that many people still remember praising the scenery of his hometown Cua Lo."Take a walk and see, there is Lo Thuy, there is Ngu Son, there is no joy more enjoyable than the old homeland/ Holding hands, I remind you, the orchid, the cinnamon, cultivating, please remember the old roots and branches")And it was that personality and talent that captured the talented Northern man at first sight.

Writer Vu Tu Nam once recalled the first meeting that immediately “the Nghe An girl left a deep impression” on him. At the end of 1948, when both of them were only eighteen or twenty, he was a soldier working at the “Soldier” newspaper in Inter-zone IV, one day he heard a young girl (working in women’s affairs) stand up and give a speech to encourage the soldiers to enthusiastically go to battle against the enemy.

Her warm, convincing voice, combined with her round face, bright eyes, and soft shoulder-length hair made his heart flutter. When his unit gradually moved north, he still didn't know much about that girl, but his heart was filled with longing. He thought, if fate allowed, maybe one day they would meet again...

And it was true that fate had arranged for them to come together in a very special way. The female writer Thanh Huong said that, during those years, she was assigned by the organization to write letters of encouragement to the soldiers. She wrote letters of encouragement to the soldiers in his Battalion, and she received a reply letter from him, on behalf of the soldiers in the same unit. When writer Vu Tu Nam's unit returned to Inter-zone IV, he met the girl who signed Phuong Thuy under each letter, he was surprised to realize that she was the girl who had made him moved at first sight...

After that, both of them were sent to Viet Bac to work. Writer Thanh Huong, like many young people at that time, had a burning heart of ideals and love for the revolution, joining the arduous war with many sacrifices. She joined the Border, Hoa Binh, and Upper Laos campaigns... with many different roles. Sometimes she did logistics work, sometimes she was a military medical political commissar...

During these years, she also began to write short stories and collected them in a book published together “Female Civil Worker”. Life, labor and fighting with all the pressure poured into her heart and once again she recreated it in her writings. These were also the days that marked the milestone of her love with writer Vu Tu Nam.

Only occasionally did they meet during campaigns, then quickly parted. From letters, their friendship turned into love, and then, after his long illness at the end of 1953, they got married in 1954. The simple wedding ceremony was held at the Army Propaganda Department, without the "ring exchange" and then, more than 64 years later (April 2017), at the launch of a book commemorating their lives and love story, they tearfully exchanged rings bought by their children.

At the age of over 80, female writer and journalist Thanh Huong no longer has enough health to remember many parts of her life, but she will always remember the memories of her love with writer Vu Tu Nam, the memories of her children...

She said that during those days, even after they got married, they were still often apart. They only saw each other regularly through letters. More than 500 letters were placed at the bottom of their backpacks and followed them through the resistance journeys. Over time, when they built a home, the letters filled a large leather suitcase. The letters with their blurred handwriting and yellowed pages were their most precious possessions.

In the letters, they not only told each other about their memories, not only expressed their love, exchanged vows and trust, but also helped each other overcome difficulties, complete tasks, told everyday stories, talked to each other about the lives around them, about their common friends, about the growth of their children and also a place for them to share new works with each other. It can be said that writer Vu Tu Nam was the first strict reader of writer Thanh Huong and vice versa...

The life, career and love story of the two writers Thanh Huong and Vu Tu Nam are admired by many people. They are not only talented writers, but also successful in their work. Writer Vu Tu Nam later became the General Secretary of the Vietnam Writers Association, writer Thanh Huong became the Editor-in-Chief of the Vietnam Women's Newspaper.

From the small house they stayed at the Thanh Huong writer’s office when they left Viet Bac to return to the capital, to the nearly 30 square meter room they rented on the second floor of a villa on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street (Hanoi), they lived and nurtured their love with their children. Later, when the American invaders escalated their bombing of the North, that small family had to evacuate and say goodbye many more times… The letters continued to prolong their love.

The book "Memories of Love".

For writer Vu Tu Nam, he still loves and cherishes his life partner more than the first time he was “moved by the voice, face, and shoulders of the Nghe An girl”. He said that she has accompanied him throughout his life with all her love, devotion, and sacrifice. She is his wife but also his friend and soul mate.

She is responsible, takes care of the family, and she is also the one who helps him erase his worries and troubles with small, humorous stories... She said, now they "have so many things in common: not only a house, property, letters, but most precious are children, grandchildren and the joys and worries about them."

Talking about the book “Love Memories” which is also a collection of letters the two sent to each other, writer Thanh Huong shared that she and her husband were very hesitant to publish anything that belonged to privacy. However, they were encouraged by many people, especially the American writer Lady Borton - currently the director of the Quaker Organization in Hanoi.

During a visit to the writer Thanh Huong and her husband, the American writer was extremely surprised by their love through 500 letters. Lady Borton found that “It was history, real history, the kind of history that I love - real stories of people, full of everyday events told honestly, not found in journalistic literature or student literature.” Many people also shared the same opinion that these were private letters but became “common” when they carried the breath of history of a generation.

According to Michael Arnold - the editor of the English translation of "Memories of Love": "Vu Tu Nam and Thanh Huong lived through important and interesting periods of history. Still together and full of love after nearly 70 years of exchanging their first letters, they still have much to teach new generations about the nature of war, struggle and eternal love."

Now, every day, female writer Thanh Huong quietly finds joy in the care she gives to writer Vu Tu Nam, in her caring handshakes and in the stories between the two of them about a difficult and vibrant youth...

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