Purple ivy

(Baonghean) - I have two great friends. They are several decades older than me and at the turning points of life I think of them like a gentle and vibrant purple primrose bud...

Mr. Nguyen Dang Khoa is considered by many to be the most talented artist because he is a severely disabled veteran but can play 4 musical instruments at the same time. His name is included in the highest awards of the national music and dance festival for disabled veterans every year.

But few people know that at the age of twenty, the most beautiful period of his life, he lived through extremely depressed days when he was immersed in darkness. Before that, after finishing 12th grade, putting aside his dream of becoming an electronic engineer, the excellent student Dang Khoa volunteered to join the 559th group to go to the South. His entire squad sacrificed, leaving only him with a torn body, two blind eyes, broken bones... requiring emergency care.

Those days were so terrifying, he was so haunted that every time he woke up after a long night, he was deafened by the screams of his badly wounded comrades. Those screams made his pain excruciating. When there were no screams, he thought about his hometown, about his newlywed wife who had not yet given birth to a child after a leave. The more he thought about it, the more painful it became to think of himself as useless and redundant in society.

The strange thing that ended those terrible days, no one expected, was the sharing of a musician. One morning when he woke up, there was almost no screaming, only the melodious sound of the harmonica with the lyrics: "Oh that day will come, you will come back, you will come back, right you...". When the gentle melody of the last verse: "And you said you would give me spring", he thought of the gentle honeysuckle buds still growing wild beside the fence of the house. No one watered, fertilized, or cared for them, but those seemingly superfluous buds beside the fence still quietly spread their fragrance, showing off a bit of pink, making spring more fragrant and colorful, people's hearts more excited.

Uncle Khoa was determined to learn music, many war invalids were also determined to learn music after the talk of musician Pham Minh Tuan that day. Their mornings when they woke up were no longer filled with screams when they learned to listen more to music and singing. They also felt life was more relaxed when they listened to the cooing of doves on the roof, when they smelled a fragrant flower that had just bloomed in the morning. Like Uncle Khoa, they returned to their families, starting new jobs in a cheerful mood.

The second friend I want to tell you about is Kieu Thu. Kieu Thu is still considered by many young Vietnamese people as a symbol of the will to overcome oneself, even though she passed away nearly two years ago.

In a timed bomb attack right in front of the Saigon Post Office, Ms. Thu was the main person in charge. However, when the bomb exploded, the target was nowhere to be seen, only a cleaning lady was still meticulously doing her job nearby. Unable to let her people die, female commando soldier Kieu Thu told her to avoid it. Unfortunately, the cleaning lady was too panicked and screamed loudly. And Ms. Thu was arrested, and went through torture in Con Dao, Chi Hoa... most of the famous prisons in the South. She was returned with many war scars all over her body. In recent years, her cancer has metastasized to 12 organs.

I still remember, when I started my journalism career, around 2003, my section chief called Kieu Thu “the flame”. He said that the doctor said: “You probably won’t live past this year. And so, year after year, that “flame” still lives, surpassing the doctor’s diagnosis. Every year, that “flame” carries 12 cancerous organs on its body, cycling from the South to Uncle Ho’s mausoleum, transmitting warmth and enthusiasm to the youth.

“Just looking at the children’s eyes attentively listening to her tell her war stories, makes her happy.” It’s that simple. Knowing that the female soldier has gone far away. No fire can burn forever. Kieu Thu’s “fire” has been lit in another world, but the warmth of the fire she lit on her cross-Vietnam cycling journey still remains, forever. And you, the story about you still warms the hearts of children, the young people who listen attentively every time someone tells it.

And these April days, I write simple and sincere lines about them, those who have burned all their youth for an April day that is never far away... And you, young friend, you have just listened attentively, right?

Vo Thu Huong