"The wound in my heart, I still carry heavy..."

(Baonghean) - We visited Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thuc, mother of two martyrs Hoang Kim Loan and Hoang Van Khanh, living in Hamlet 5, Quynh Hoa Commune (Quynh Luu) on a late afternoon. In the house, two women, one swaying like a dry leaf in the wind, the other bearing the imprint of hard work, relied on each other to remember, love and long for...

Tears for the child

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thuc is 94 years old this year. Knowing that there are visitors, she forced herself to get up, leaning unsteadily on the edge of the bed, her eyes looking into the distance... Ms. Hoang Thi Nguyet, the youngest daughter of Mrs. Thuc, said that in recent years, she has been very weak, some days she can eat a spoonful of rice, some days she can't eat a spoonful, all she has to do is drink milk to survive.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thuc and her daughter Hoang Thi Nguyet.

Ms. Nguyet recounted that during the fierce war years, her father, Mr. Hoang Van Que, from somewhere in Ha Tinh, came here to work as a hired hand, then started a family with her mother, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thuc. They had 5 children together, including 2 sons and 3 daughters, but unfortunately, even Mrs. Thuc did not know exactly where her husband was born. After her father passed away, Ms. Nguyet brought the story of his origin to ask her aunt who had wandered with her father, but even she could not remember where her hometown was, in the long land of Ha Tinh?!

In her memory, memories of her father and brothers are a... blank! She said that in December 1967, her eldest brother Hoang Kim Loan, who was only 19 years old at the time, eagerly enlisted in the army. That was unit C5 - D2 - E246, belonging to the B5 front, stationed in Vinh O commune, Vinh Linh district, Quang Tri province. On March 5, 1969, the enemy attacked the stronghold, he and his comrades fought fiercely and breathed their last. The day she received his death notice, Thuc's mother fainted from the pain...

The pain was still bleeding when 3 years later, the second brother Hoang Van Khanh begged his mother to let him join the army. Khanh was only 16 years old at that time, not old enough to join the army, and was thin and weak, so Thuc's mother advised him to wait a few more years, but he insisted on joining. On July 1, 1972, he joined unit C4 - D7 - KH, namely Firepower Company 4, Battalion 7, Regiment 8, Tri - Thien Military Region. The day he left, Thuc's mother watched him with worry.

Still with that belief, Thuc's mother waited wearily for news of her son every day. But her last son also left and never returned, just like her older brother. On February 16, 1973, Hoang Van Khanh was forever left in Quang Tri Citadel. Once again, Thuc's mother held her son's death certificate in her hand, her heart numb as if every piece of her intestines were falling out. At that time, Mr. Hoang Van Que was seriously ill, and upon receiving the bad news, he passed away not long after. Thuc's mother had no more tears to cry for her children.

Pain upon pain, more than 40 years later, the pain still remains. Every afternoon, Thuc's mother leans on her cane and gropes her way to the end of the alley, looking towards the end of the long road, hoping that her children will return...

The dutiful daughter

On the day her two brothers died, Hoang Thi Nguyet, the youngest daughter of Thuc's mother, was still young. When Nguyet's two older sisters left to follow their husbands, many young men in the village were interested in Nguyet, who was famous for her gentleness and modesty. Like many girls in their teens and twenties, Nguyet also longed for her own happiness, but suddenly thought: "My sisters are married, and if I do the same, who can my mother rely on?" So she had to put aside her personal life, work hard, and plow deeply, replacing her two older brothers who had sacrificed themselves to take care of their old mother.

Her youth passed like that, until Nguyet was 40 years old. The small house on the mountainside was still lonely, with a mother with gray hair and wrinkled skin, and an elderly daughter, who was alone day and night. Feeling sorry for her loneliness and loneliness, the neighbors advised her to have a child, hoping to rely on her when she was old. And Nguyet's daughter, Hoang Thi Ngan, was born in 2002, without ever seeing her father's face.

The burden of the family weighed heavily on her shoulders. In addition to the three sao of contracted rice fields, she also received another 7 sao from others, working hard alone on one mau of rice fields. After the harvest, she went to sell bananas, make cakes for the market, and go to the forest to collect firewood... However, hunger and poverty still clung to her. She said, when her child was still young, one day after school he came home and asked: "Our family is so poor, why do your friends keep teasing you?" When she explained to her child, her heart ached with pain. From then on, she often told her mother and children: "If anyone asks, don't say I eat porridge, say I eat fish and meat". But the honest old lady Thuc said: "The rice is gone before the harvest season!"

The current shelter of Ms. Nguyet and her mother and Mr. Thuc is a three-room house that is still new, spacious and decent. Everyone says that she is a determined person. She smiled sadly: "That house was borrowed!". She said: "Before building this house, my mother and I, my grandmother and I lived in a dilapidated house, and during the rainy and stormy season, it was extremely difficult. In 2008, a philanthropist came through the commune to support my family with 20 million VND, so I took a risk. Some people lent me sand, some lent me cement, some helped me with construction work... 6 years have passed, I have borrowed more than 100 million VND from people, and I still haven't been able to pay it back. The debt is overwhelming, especially at the end of the year, when Tet comes, everyone asks me about the debt. I have an old mother and young children who can't make ends meet. Many times, I think that if I had known, I wouldn't have built the house."

Hoang Thi Ngan, although still young, has learned to help her mother with housework and take care of her grandmother. Every day, at 5am, she goes with her mother to sell rice cakes around the village. After school, she eats and goes to the forest to collect firewood with her mother. Currently, Ngan is preparing to enter 8th grade. Because of difficult and miserable circumstances, Ms. Nguyet plans to let her finish 9th grade, then drop out of school and go work for hire. "Knowing that she is smart and a good student, I feel heartbroken to have her drop out of school. But what can I do to make her grow up?" Ms. Nguyet lamented.

Ms. Nguyet recalls that 4 years ago, not long after she finished building the house, Mr. Thuc was so sad for his children that he could not eat or sleep. He spent all day hugging the military uniform and the pith helmet of his two brothers, looking at them and then bursting into tears: "Where are my children? Where are my children? Loan, Khanh... Where are you two? Why don't you come back to your mother?" Feeling so sad for her mother, she ran back and forth to borrow 20 million VND, discussing with her two older sisters to go find the graves of her two brothers and bring them back to her. After many days of searching in Hue and Quang Tri, her money was gone and all information about her brothers was gone. "My mother is as old as a ripe banana, I just wish I could be strong enough to find my brothers and bring them back to my mother," Ms. Nguyet's eyes were red.

It can be said that the greatest asset of a woman is her children. For the cause of fighting for the liberation of the country, they sacrificed the children they gave birth to and raised. That loss will follow them throughout their lives! With deep gratitude, the author of this article prays for Thuc’s mother to have good health and receive more attention from the community.

Article and photos:Nguyen Thi Hoe