The love story of a young volunteer and a blind war invalid

Don't want your lover to "get hurt" again

In the middle of July, the Central region's sun shone directly on our faces from the street below. We wound through small alleys and arrived at Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Tra's house in area 5, Quang Trung ward, Quy Nhon city, Binh Dinh.

The youthful volunteer Nguyen Thi Thanh Tra is now 72 years old, a 4/4 disabled veteran. She joined the revolution very early and went through many tasks such as: communication, transporting the wounded, carrying ammunition, providing food for the battlefield, guarding prisoners of war...

Now, the road to happiness is only left for Ms. Tra in the house with her grandchild after 40 years of living with her husband, a 1st class disabled soldier out of 4, blind in both eyes, Mr. Duong Van Minh, who passed away in December 2021, at the age of 80.

Now in the house built with all the love is still filled with longing.

Ms. Tra slowly poured tea for us and recalled the love story between her and Mr. Minh, how they created a prosperous and happy home and the pain that went along with it.

In 1963, Uncle Duong Van Minh joined the army as a special force soldier. During a battle in Binh Son district (Quang Ngai), after opening the hatch of the enemy's 4th tank to throw a grenade in and preparing to escape, the enemy threw a grenade back at him, causing him to be seriously injured, bleed profusely and faint.

Uncle Minh was promptly carried out by his comrades, bandaged and taken to the rear base for treatment. After that time, fortunately Uncle Minh's life was saved even though he had a total of 28 wounds on his body (1st class wounded soldier out of 4 - disability rate 91%) but... he could never see again.

After the liberation of the South, Uncle Minh was taken by the State to be raised at the Nghia Binh Nursing Home for the Seriously Wounded located in Binh Dinh ward (An Nhon town, Binh Dinh province) now.

“ At first, my husband was extremely pessimistic, lived with inferiority complex and self-pity, always considered himself “waste”. It was not until the day he met me that his hurt was healed ”, Ms. Tra sadly said.

At that time, Ms. Tra was sent by the State to study cultural supplementary courses, then studied accounting and worked at the Binh Dinh Passenger Car Joint Stock Company.

She shared that in the early 80s of the last century, she often visited her sworn sister in Kim Chau village (An Nhon town, Binh Dinh) and here she had the chance to meet and interact with Uncle Minh. The meetings and conversations were short but both of them gave each other the deepest sympathy, from then on the two wounded hearts complemented each other.

She admired him for his honest, upright, and straightforward nature. He admired her so much that, although he had never seen her face, he always assured everyone that she was very beautiful in both appearance and character. He was proud of her diligence, hard work, and love for him so much.

After 3 months, their love was strong enough to ask for permission from both families. When Ms. Tra told her family about marrying Mr. Minh, her parents firmly disagreed. Her father left because he was afraid that Mr. Minh's disability would make Ms. Tra unable to support the family.

“ It is natural that my father did not agree because he loved his daughter. I sympathized and understood that. I never told Mr. Minh about this at that time because I was afraid that he would be “hurt” again ,” Ms. Tra confided.

Ms. Tra was determined to convince her parents, until a grand wedding took place, which was also the first wedding held at the Binh Dinh Passenger Car Joint Stock Company at that time.

“ As someone who sacrificed himself in the war, I have deep sympathy for Mr. Minh. Mr. Minh is an extremely straightforward person, he devoted part of his blood and bones for the people and the country. Moreover, Mr. Minh truly loved me, in return I truly admired him. I decided to overcome public opinion, overcome difficulties to come to a man even though I was blind in both eyes.. ,” Ms. Tra said.

“Great loss, but our hearts are strong”

After getting married, Ms. Tra determined that her husband had permanently lost his most precious asset, his eyes, so her hands had to be much stronger than many other women to make up for it.

At that time, Uncle Minh was still at the Nursing Home for Severely Invalid Soldiers, more than 20 km from Ms. Tra's workplace... The long distance was difficult and inconvenient to travel, so Ms. Tra encouraged and brought her husband home to take care of and raise him herself.

Their love was filled with happiness and blossomed. Ms. Tra was pregnant with her first child. Their happiness was short-lived when they experienced the pain of losing their unborn child. The two encouraged each other to continue living and hoping.

Once again, it seemed like fate would smile on them when Ms. Tra continued to announce that she was pregnant. “ I was shocked and in pain when I learned that I had lost my second child before he was born. At that time, I was extremely desperate. Fate gave me a child and then took it away one after another, ” Ms. Tra recalled.

Knowing that having children was difficult, the old war invalids relied on each other to give them the strength to overcome their difficult life. The pain gradually subsided. After a while, Ms. Tra informed Mr. Minh that she was pregnant again.

“Fate smiled on my husband and I after a long period of pain, when our daughter Duong Thi Ngoc Man was born. At that time, my husband and I were very happy and told ourselves that we would not have any more children but would put all our love into baby Man ,” Ms. Tra choked.

We have great losses but in return we have strong hearts.

The house was filled with children's laughter, erasing the wounds of war. It was already difficult for two war invalids to support each other, now there were more mouths to feed. With a limited salary and disability allowance, Uncle Minh had to stay home every day to boil water and make tea for Aunt Tra to sell at the bus station after work.

“ I can sell more water at the bus station thanks to my husband cooking at home. Although it is hard, every day my husband and I earn 1,000 VND in profit, which can be exchanged for 2 kg of rice… ”, Ms. Tra said.

Working and taking care of each other, Ms. Tra did not hesitate to do any job from selling tea, cakes, cigarettes... Later, with more capital, she and Mr. Minh also raised pigs and ducks to lay eggs...

Trying to save money at that time, the couple built a 150 m2 house for themselves and their daughter on a 500 m2 plot of land from reclaiming previously barren land. On the remaining land, the couple planted a few dozen banana trees.

Ms. Tra excitedly shared that she is fortunate to have good health to devote herself to economic development. War invalids cannot rely solely on government subsidies. Many times, Ms. Tra has had the honor to report on typical examples of severely wounded war invalids and former youth volunteers who are good at doing business...

That time was the best time, the neighbors saw that the family of the wounded soldier was always filled with happiness, they never raised their voices or argued with each other. For them, happiness was sharing the joys and sorrows, loving and giving in to each other.

Now, that spacious house lacks the call of “Grandma” from her uncle, instead it is replaced by the call of “Grandma” from her granddaughter (Ms. Man’s daughter). Her uncle left her alone 3 years ago. Every day she has her granddaughter by her side to comfort her, a joy in her old age.

“ Now I just hope to have more health to live with my children and grandchildren. I have lived so that people can feel that I am a normal person, not a war invalid, weak after having to suffer the loss of a part of my body. We have suffered great losses, but in return we have strong hearts, ” Ms. Tra affirmed.

Source: https://vtc.vn/chuyen-tinh-co-thanh-nien-xung-phong-va-nguoi-thuong-binh-mu-ar808672.html