BRING HIM BACK TO HIS HOMETOWN

“Perhaps in the life of each person, everyone would experience a lot of immense happiness and also endless sadness. Particularly for families during the years of war of the country, the sight of a young wife holding baby to see her husband off for the battle front...they silently held back their tears, waited for the day when they could see each other again. And after so many years, the war was long over - the young wife of that day now has grey hair - and the person who had departed did not return?!.

That is the case of the family of Tran Thi Nghia in Binh Minh commune, Kien Xuong district, Thai Binh province - during the days when America expanded the war in both the South and the North (1965) - her husband Doan Van Co, a demobilized soldier quickly returned to the front. On the day of his departure, Nghia carrying the daughter in her arms saw him off... and then who would have thought that not until the two halves of the nation were filled with the joy of the great victory, did Nghia receive the information of her husband from a death notice: Doan Van Co, her husband died on 13 August 1986 in... “the southern front” (!).

With the pain of parting in death, Nghia only silently felt pity for her destiny and for her child who had longed for her father for so many years.

Similar to many families whose relatives still “lay” in the battlefields, despite distance, with brothers and sisters in the family, particularly with the determination of Hoa - the only child of the patriotic martyr, Nghia by all means contacted his former comrades who were still alive to ask about the place where his body had been buried. The uncles, aunts together with Hoa went to many places. However all was just like “trying to find a needle in a haystack”. Not until 1994 did the family receive the information of the Policy department of Military command of Kon Tum province, however the sorrow was deepened, as they themselves also did not know where the body of patriotic martyr Co was “lying”!? In the places of battlefield in the old days, mountain winds were still blowing, forest rains were still pouring...

Not until the end of 2003 i.e. 34 years after the death of patriotic martyr Doan Van Co, did Thiem - a nephew meet Nam Nghia - a famous psychic who was praised by the press as being able to find remains of patriotic martyrs. Nam Nghia used her special method to communicate with the dead. Via Nam Nghia - patriotic martyr Co showed his relatives that his grave was at a forest’s edge, people had to pass Dac To district: this was the bridge, that was the drain and in the distant was the communal house... The patriotic martyr also clearly showed his grave was 20 metres to the West of a river, the head towards the mountain. Above the grave, after 35 years there was no mark left. With more details, now above the grave were some humble plants with violet flowers. One corner of the piece of canvas that his comrades used to wrap his body now came up to the surface. His grave was the first, to the left were some more graves of soldiers from the South (with names and addresses of patriotic martyr Nguyen Duc Tam, whose wife was Bui Thi Ngoat at Tan Hiep ward, Bien Hoa city; patriotic martyr Bui Van Trong, whose child was Hoang Van Tho living in Binh Ba town, Ra Ria...). Finally, patriotic martyr Co hastened:

“You should quickly take me home otherwise we cannot not stand this rainy season...”

With the first step and important information “acquired”, could the relatives of the patriotic martyr have anything happier? And though the search was very hard, with Nam accompanying and supporters everywhere, all obstacles were over. The families of patriotic martyrs Nguyen Duc Tam, Bui Van Trong...accompanying the search were also satisfied.

Patriotic martyr Doan Van Co was the only one from the North, according to the account of Nguyen Minh Chau, brother in law of the patriotic martyr ...“On that day, from Gia Lai coach station, my wife and I bought 3 tickets for North-South passenger coach - one ticket was for our brother. On the way to pick him up and also to take him home, all was very safe. At Phu Ly, all brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews living and working in Ha Noi, Hai Duong...also the family of Thiem from Ho Chi Minh City... waited with vehicle ready, respectfully received our brother’s remains, joy was mixed with sadness and tears... On the way back to Thai Binh, over the modern bridge of Tan De, we deliberately drove the car slowly so that our brother could listen to the sound of the ferryboat in the old days when he and his comrades crossed the river to go to the South.

The car just passed over the bridge, there they were! Hoa - the daughter of our brother! Ngoc - his son in law with Long and Linh - his grandchildren. And there were also many relatives waiting. It was a pity that his wife Nghia was sick and had to wait for him at the gate of their home as she had done in the past.

All brothers, sisters and relatives of the family were present to receive the remains of the soldier who had departed that day... there was sound of weeping... I understand, for Nghia, on that day when seeing her husband off, she did not expect to welcome him back with the honored title of spouse of deceased patriotic martyr! Before the hallowed memory of the deceased person, we - brothers, sisters and children would like to be a bit proud of having found your remains to bring home after our sister’s lifetime waiting.

Your grave is now located in the patriots’ cemetery of the district... In the pain of loss there is gladness, as after 35 years you have returned amid love and longing emotions”.

Tran Ngoc Lan

(According to the narrative of Nguyen Minh Chau and the document of the Union of information science and applied technology UIA).

BRING HIM BACK TO HIS HOMETOWN makes people with relatives, who died and were buried in the soil of homeland, unable to hold back their tears. Yes! We cry for people whose remains have not yet been brought back to their hometown and we also do not know where their remains are. For instance our younger brother - Le Van Tan, where is his remains? My mother died long ago, when she was alive, every time mentioning his name, she could not hold back her tears, each afternoon, leaning against the door with her eyes towards his footstep her tears kept coming out of her eyes.

At that moment, do you know what? I just consoled her: Mom, please don’t cry, my brother will come back in the future when he has completed his mission.

Despite my consoling mom, I myself could not hold back my tears. As we did not know when the mission of liberating our country would be accomplished. The enemy was powerfully equipped with modern guns, cannons, armoured tanks and our troops fought enemy with sharpened thick bamboos. In comparison of the two forces, one would know in order to liberate the country, how many children of the fatherland would have to sacrifice their lives.

Today the country is united in independence and peace, families of deceased patriotic martyrs together have been searching for their remains through psychics, they have been travelling to all corners of the country, how about our family?

Our family does not have any one of high rank in the government to support our search for his remains, sometimes people even said my brother followed the enemy and died. It’s heart-breaking! The cadres who were then members of Tay Ninh provincial party committee helped my brother to leave home and enter the base to establish troops to fight enemy. Nowadays one after another, most of them passed away, some of them due to old age had retired.

To whom the pain of the family can be related to now. Father passed away, mother passed away, brothers and sisters - one after another - also passed away, hardly anyone of future generations would know this, if without the pages of family history, tomorrow where the posterity can find the evidence. The family members of grandfather, father, younger and older brothers, younger and older sisters - all have given their efforts, bones and blood to contribute to the homeland.

To end this book, we would like to confirm SOUL does not exist, instead only the KHANDHA OF IMAGINATION operates.

--------

END