At the beginning of each month, Mr. Ha Van Hoang (38 years old, office worker in Hanoi, from Tuyen Quang) transfers 5 million VND to his mother.
That has become a habit for the past few years. As soon as Luong arrived, he opened his phone, pressed a few buttons and texted: "I sent you money, Mom. What's missing, Mom told me".
His mother often answered very briefly: "Yes, I know". The conversation between the two mothers and sons is often just like that.
He lives and works in Hanoi, while his nearly 70-year-old mother has lived alone in her hometown for many years after his father passed away. To fulfill his filial piety, every month, he buys blood pressure medication for his mother, orders milk, pays for electricity and water, and calls hourly helpers to clean up.
He reassures himself that his mother is not lacking. The house has a refrigerator, air conditioner, washing machine. Living expenses are regular. Medication never makes his mother have to remind him. Both working and raising young children, he thinks that is already an effort.
Until one afternoon, neighbors called to report that his mother had fainted in the kitchen and had to be taken to the hospital.
When Mr. Hoang ran back to the place, his mother was awake. She was lying on the hospital bed, her body getting smaller. Seeing her son worried, she still said: "It's okay, mother is healthy".
The doctor said she had low blood pressure, weakness, and needed further monitoring. But what made him speechless was not just the medical record. In the cloth bag the neighbor brought to the hospital, he saw a small notebook.
She wrote down electricity bills, water bills, daily medicine bills, and even trivial lines: "Hoang transferred money", "my child called for 3 minutes", "the grandchild hasn't returned for a long time", "cooked crab soup but no one ate".
That night, when the hospital room was empty, he asked his mother if she was in a lot of pain. She did not tell about the fatigue, nor complained about being hospitalized. She just looked out the window and said: "It's been a long time since we had a full meal at home.
Many children today are being filial by phone. Sending money through the bank, ordering medicine through applications, buying food online, calling a car to take parents to the doctor. These things are necessary, especially when young people are caught up in the pressure of food and clothing.
But there are things that money cannot replace. For elderly parents, meals are not just about eating and drinking. It's the sound of the door opening, the sound of grandchildren calling grandmother, it's when mothers get to pick up a piece of fish for their children, and be asked if they sleep well today.
After his mother was hospitalized, Mr. Hoang still transferred money and ordered medicine regularly. But he added one thing to his schedule, which is to try to take his child home to visit his grandmother once a week.
He said that what torments him the most is not whether he has sent his mother a little or a lot of money, but that he has left his mother alone for too long.
Filial piety nowadays does not necessarily mean being close to parents every day. But no matter how busy they are, each person can still give their parents a call, a meal without their phone, and listen to all the old stories once.
