At the age of 79, Ms. Nguyen Thi Le's (resident of Tay Ninh) steps have slowed down a lot due to sequelae from a stroke. Half of her body is often numb, her back aches, but when she heard the news of finding the remains of martyr Huynh Van Quen, she still suppressed the pain and asked relatives to take her to his younger brother's house to wait for information.
For nearly sixty years, that woman has still chosen to remain single, determinedly worshiping the young soldier to whom she had entrusted her youthful love.
Wartime love and unfinished promise
Going back to memories of the years 1965 - 1966, rear girl Nguyen Thi Le, who was just twenty years old at that time, was in charge of supplying, cooking and washing clothes for soldiers stationed in the locality every day. Here, she met young soldier Huynh Van Quen. Their love blossomed simply from a few pairs of tattered soldier clothes carefully patched by her hands. Sharing the same revolutionary ideal, that pure love quickly received support and success from both families.
He promised that when he completed his mission, he would come back to marry me," Mrs. Le smiled, her eyes sparkling with happiness when remembering her young lover.
On the day Mr. Quen marched with his unit to the front lines, the fortune on the day of separation was only encapsulated in four or five handwritten letters filled with longing. She recalled with emotion that once because of the fierce war, the two had not met for a long time, and letters were also interrupted for a long time. But amidst the rare moments of silence of bombs and bullets, because he missed his daughter in his hometown too much, the young soldier carefully wrote lines of a warning letter, waiting for the day the liaison officer changed direction:
Letters of anticipation, letters coming
Letter up, don't get lost, wait for me, thư.
Years have passed, house moves and the harshness of rain and sun, termites have taken away precious souvenirs of the past. However, there is one thing that time cannot erode, which is the complete longing she has for her lover.
That memory, although beautiful, is also a painful wound in the heart, when the smoke and fire of the Mau Than 1968 campaign deprived her of the promise of the triumphant day. Holding the death certificate in her hand, the sky and earth under the young girl's feet seemed to collapse completely, she fainted like a lost soul, the pain squeezed her heart.
For many years after the war, although many people expressed their desire to share the burden of life, her family also advised her to find a stop to be less lonely in her old age, but she still quietly shook her head. For this girl, once giving her sincerity is a lifetime of faithfulness, even knowing that the road ahead is only one figure.
Life and death are for one person, even though I know it will be disadvantageous, I have no feelings for anyone else," Ms. Le choked up.
Since then, every year on the death anniversary of her lover, she has quietly been present, lighting incense for the deceased. Mr. Quen's parents during their lifetime also considered her as their daughter-in-law and grandchild in the family. Now old and weak, without a husband or children, she relies on her younger sister and grandchildren, supporting her old body through the days of illness.
The'bride sister' without status of the Huynh family
That loyalty, full of righteousness and complete affection is the reason why in the small house in Vam Co commune, the brothers of martyr Quen still respectfully call Mrs. Le "Sister Hai" - a solemn title reserved only for the eldest brother's wife.
Mr. Huynh Van Chin (younger brother of the martyr) shared that for decades, Mrs. Le has never been absent from her brother's death anniversary. Although farming life is still difficult, she still fulfills her duties as a daughter-in-law, personally buying offerings to offer to the ancestral altar. During her lifetime, Mr. Chin's parents loved her like their own daughter. In her last days in the hospital bed, the elderly mother was still always concerned and saddened by the silent sacrifice of her nameless daughter-in-law.
My brothers and I saw her alone, we felt very sorry for her, no one dared to selfishly prevent her from finding her own happiness. But her personality was determined not to change," Mr. Chin recounted.
Mr. Chin himself, when his older brother enlisted, was only a few years old, his image was mainly nurtured through the stories of his parents. For decades, his family once fell into hopelessness when thinking about the fierce collective bomb crater in the past, as if the wish to find relatives had forever closed.
However, a miracle happened on a day in early July. When Mr. Chin was weeding in the field, he received a phone call informing him that functional forces had found his brother's remains at Le Thi Rieng Park. Although the wartime records had some errors in names due to typing errors, but with bloody intuition and comparative evidence, the family 100% affirmed that it was their relative.
Quickly dropping the hoe in the middle of the field, Mr. Chin immediately ran home, the first thing he did was bring good news to his "sister-in-law" whose hair was already gray. Receiving the news from her younger brother, Mrs. Le was moved to death.
Now, the ray of hope for the reunion day after more than half a century of anxiety is closer than ever. Sitting leaning against a soft pillow to relieve her spinal pain, the woman slightly teared up, looking towards the Certificate of Merit to the Fatherland: "For decades I didn't know where you were, now the State has found you, I am satisfied".
Although the time ahead still needs to wait for the DNA test results to confirm absolute accuracy, the tears of reunion seem to have fallen in the small house. The promise of spring 1968 now only waits for a final confirmation of science to be complete into a sacred meeting - proof of a steadfast love that has transcended both the finiteness of time and the line of life and death.
