Together we strive: Military Region 3

During the Tet holiday in 1999, when she was a first-year student, Ha and a group of friends went on a spring outing. At the meeting place, Ha was introduced by a friend to a soldier with a very gentle face and weathered skin, named Nguyen Quang Nghi, who would join the group on the spring outing. Throughout the trip, he volunteered to help her carry things, and the two chatted happily. After the outing ended, knowing that Ha's house was in a neighboring commune, he often invited his friends to visit her house during the following holidays. The day Ha returned to school, he took her to school with the message: "Try to study well! I will wait for you." Understanding Nghi's feelings for her, during her time at university, Ha felt as if she had been given more motivation to study well.

The day she received her diploma, he came to her house to ask her parents' permission to take care of her lover's job and plan for marriage. Her parents were both happy and worried. They were happy because their daughter had found a true love, but they were also worried because they only had one daughter... After a period of thinking and pondering, with love and faith, she convinced her parents to let her follow him to a new environment.

In the early days of starting a business in Quang Ninh, the new living environment and customs made her feel disappointed. But then thinking about the future and the promise she made to her parents, she tried her best to adapt to the new life. When life was stable, she informed her family, agency and unit to live together. Their wedding was held warmly in front of family, relatives, friends and colleagues from both sides. After the wedding, he continued to return to work, while she continued to work hard on her lesson plans every day.

The couple's joy was multiplied when their son Nguyen Quang Ninh appeared. Both parents lived far away, and her husband was often absent due to work requirements, so she had to take care of the child by herself. Ha said: This is my first time being a mother, so I have absolutely no experience in taking care of a child. The most memorable moment was when my son was 10 months old, right on the day Mr. Nghi was on duty in the unit, and in the middle of the night, my son had a high fever. It was freezing cold outside, and the baby was crying in the house, so Ms. Ha quickly took a blanket to warm him up and took him to the hospital alone. The next day, Mr. Nghi returned from the unit, hurriedly prepared food to bring to the hospital for his wife. Seeing his wife's sunken eyes from lack of sleep, he hugged her to encourage and comfort her.

Overcoming many difficulties, Ms. Ha has both completed her schoolwork well and taken care of her family. Her greatest achievement is that her son Nguyen Quang Ninh has been an excellent student at the provincial and national levels for many years, and is currently a first-year student at Hanoi National University; her daughter Nguyen Ngoc Bao An is a 6th grader, well-behaved, a good student, and knows how to help her mother with daily chores.

Sharing the secret to keeping her family together, Ms. Ha said: “Happiness is created by yourself. Therefore, I always cherish the person who is with me and we work together for that.”

Article and photos: TRAN THANH HUYEN

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