Visiting the stilt house of Uncle Ho worshiped by a female Youth Volunteer
(Baonghean.vn) - There is a woman from the rice fields of Thai Binh who built a stilt house to commemorate President Ho Chi Minh right at...
(Baonghean.vn) - There is a woman from the rice fields of Thai Binh who built a stilt house in memory of President Ho Chi Minh right in her house and diligently cleans and burns incense every day. She always keeps in mind: "Worshiping Uncle Ho is worshiping affection". She is Do Thi Men, a former Youth Volunteer in Thai Thuy district, Thai Binh province.
The pain of war…
At first, I intended to call them “losses” rather than “pains.”
But those great losses have not only made the people involved but also me when I came into contact with it deeply touched my heart. That is the story of a female youth volunteer with too much pain left by the war. She is Do Thi Men, living in Luc Bac village, Thai Xuyen commune, Thai Thuy district, Thai Binh province.
Born during the years of the resistance war against the French, the pain of her childhood is still imprinted in her cloudy eyes when she recounts the story of her two brothers who died in the famine of 1945. At the age of 20, while working for the local Youth Union, she joined the Youth Volunteer Force.In 1966, the US imperialists escalated their bombing of the North. Ms. Men enthusiastically joined the Youth Volunteers and in 1967, she was admitted to the Party. After that, Ms. Men returned to her hometown to take on many village and commune responsibilities such as being the Party cell secretary, office staff of the commune Party Committee, and kindergarten principal...
Her husband, Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong, also joined the army in 1957 in the Quang Tri battlefield and then transferred to the Southwest battlefield. He worked as a recruiter and trainer. In 1962, during a leave, he was introduced by his family and married Mrs. Men. Mrs. Men recalled: “At that time, my husband and I did not know each other. Two days after we got married, my husband had to return to the battlefield to fight.”
When peace was restored, Mr. Dong had more time to be with his wife, but during this time, Mr. Dong continuously suffered from malaria and lost all his hair, which were manifestations of the effects of Agent Orange from the years of fighting on the battlefield. Even more sadly, during the years of living together afterwards, Mrs. Men became pregnant more than five times but the children were not born. Agent Orange prevented her dream children from taking shape. She said that many nights she could only lie there crying in pain and haunted by the faces of the children... That pain, only the two people who quietly returned from the war knew and shared together...
Mr. Dong was discharged from the army in 1984 when his health was already weak. Agent Orange still did not let him go, it continued to destroy his internal organs day by day and in 1999, he died. “The moments when he was writhing in pain are moments that I will never forget for the rest of my life,” Ms. Men choked.
Visiting Mrs. Men's house, seeing her working hard alone while sweeping the house and cooking, no one can help but feel sympathy for that woman...
Seed tray and loving stilt house
Visiting Mrs. Men's house, the first thing we saw was a simple wooden tray on which she carefully placed hundreds of rice grains, corn grains, beans... When we asked, we learned that those were all rice grains that she had personally collected from all over the provinces from Mong Cai - Quang Ninh to the southern Dong Thap... In 1985, Mrs. Men rode her own Thong Nhat bicycle to Nghe An just to go to Uncle Ho's hometown to burn incense for President Ho Chi Minh and then asked her relatives in Uncle Ho's hometown in Kim Lien - Nam Dan to bring back some rice grains from this countryside as a souvenir. Later, whenever she had the opportunity to go anywhere, she always collected the seeds herself and placed them on this simple wooden shelf. She collected glutinous rice seeds from Mong Cai - Quang Ninh, collected corn seeds from Tuyen Quang, and collected rice seeds from Dong Thap...
Uncle Ho's seed trays were brought back by Mrs. Men from many provinces across the country.
In the middle of the wooden shelf with many seeds, she wrote a few verses: "Here, the blessings come from Him/ Planting rice, good rice for a prosperous life..." Looking at the image of the wooden shelf filled with all kinds of seeds, we know that it is like a way to repay Uncle Ho's gratitude for the prosperity that the people have today. Not only that, Mrs. Men also said that taking the seeds and placing them at the foot of Uncle Ho's altar is like the image of children and grandchildren from all over the country gathering together to express their gratitude for his great kindness.
The bicycle accompanied Mrs. Men on her trip to Nghe An to visit Uncle Ho's hometown.
When we visited, her old reunification bicycle was still there, it was like an object that had been very closely associated with Mrs. Men on many roads, many journeys to show her love to her beloved Uncle Ho.
Not only Uncle Ho's Seed Tray, at her own house, Mrs. Men has built a stilt house to commemorate Uncle Ho. For her, "Lighting incense to worship Uncle Ho is to worship the kindness that he has devoted to this country, to this nation" - Mrs. Men said so when we asked about the stilt house to worship Uncle Ho that she built and burned incense for nearly 40 years.
The stilt house was built by Mrs. Men in her house to worship Uncle Ho.
In the middle of Mrs. Men’s house, a spacious and airy stilt house was built on 16 sturdy pillars, modeled after the stilt house in the Presidential Palace relic site – where Uncle Ho used to sit and work every day. In the middle of the stilt house is an altar, with a portrait of Uncle Ho with curved incense sticks. When setting up the altar for Uncle Ho, Mrs. Men only said that it was from the “favors” that he had given to the country and the people. She said: “In the late 1970s, my husband and I set up an altar for Uncle Ho in the middle of our house, hoping that Uncle Ho would bless the country to return to peace, and that my husband and I would be closer to each other. And so it was until the day my husband got sick and passed away that I still cleaned and burned incense on Uncle Ho’s altar every day…”.
A few years ago, Mrs. Men also opened two more altars on both sides to worship the heroic martyrs who died in the war and to worship all the families of the Vietnamese people.
In addition, a bookcase containing hundreds of books about the portrait, life and career of President Ho Chi Minh was also collected by Mrs. Men, neatly arranged on a bookcase. Not only that, she also collected many photos of Uncle Ho when he was alive with many simple, everyday moments of his life. The album with black and white photos of Uncle Ho doing exercises, visiting people, feeding fish... was like a slow-motion film of his entire life of sacrifice for the country. To get this album, she went and met many people who had met and taken photos with Uncle Ho to ask for photos.
Notable in this album is the photo of Mrs. Men’s sister, Mrs. Do Thi Muot (70 years old this year) with Uncle Ho when he came to Thai Binh to present the emulation soldier badge in the production movement to outstanding individuals of the province. Mrs. Muot met us and said: “I was lucky to receive the bronze badge from Uncle Ho himself. My sister’s family has set up an altar for Uncle Ho for a long time and the daily incense is also a gratitude from our family and the people of this land to Uncle Ho”.
Every day, Mrs. Men diligently cleans and burns incense to worship President Ho Chi Minh.
Since Mrs. Men set up an altar for Uncle Ho in her house, at first she was the only one who diligently burned incense every day, but day by day, more and more people came to know and burn incense. Especially on holidays such as Uncle Ho's birthday (May 19) or Independence Day (September 2), many tourists from all over came here to respectfully offer incense to Uncle Ho and the fallen heroes... In the guestbooks of the tourists who had been here, we read many heartfelt messages sent to Uncle Ho - the father of the nation.
Visiting Mrs. Men’s house a few days before Uncle Ho’s birthday this year, we were surprised to see that in the large yard in front of the stilt house, under the shade of large trees, the Thai Xuyen commune’s art troupe was rehearsing the best art performances to perform on the night of May 19, which would be held right in this stilt house. Of course, in those art performances, the smooth Cheo singing from the rice fields of Thai Binh with affectionate lyrics about the boundless gratitude towards Uncle Ho was indispensable.
Goodbye Mrs. Men, goodbye the affectionate stilt house, on the way back, amidst the endless rice fields of the village road, the clear blue sky of May seemed to be embellished by the red flag with yellow star fluttering in the wind. We were impressed by the respect for Uncle Ho of a female youth volunteer like Mrs. Men...
Notes by Thai Anh
