Help the deceased 'reunite' with their family

Phung Quang Trung (left) and his colleagues sent back the restored photo to the guest - Photo: MID-AUTUMN

Currently living and working in Hai Duong province, from the images provided by relatives, the scattered pieces, he meticulously combined them to give his family a surprise gift with a complete family scene, including the deceased.

I want to give them the photo not to hold on to the past, to contain sadness but to preserve memories.

Mr. PHUNG QUANG TRUNG

Rekindle old feelings

There are families who gradually get used to the fact that their loved ones have gone forever, they accept the reality, the images of their loved ones gradually fade, and then are at risk of disappearing completely. But sometimes, in a moment, they want to hold on to those things that seem to be fading with old memories.

Many times, Trung was stunned by messages asking for help. There were stories that made him ponder. Although he was not involved in the story, he could feel some of the emotions of those left behind.

Understanding the feelings of many people who do not have time to have a reunion photo with their loved ones when they are forever separated, he spends a lot of time editing and combining photos in the hope that they will have more memories with their loved ones.

Trung said he has been in the profession for about three years and only started thinking about taking these photos a year ago. But what Trung has done is of great value. With his professionalism, the family photo was created without anyone realizing that there was a person in the new photo. Many families were surprised when they received the photos back.

Just like that, he "magically" transformed many old photos into brand new ones. He said that during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, partly because he had free time, he edited photos of people he knew online.

At first, it was just simple editing according to needs, until there was a request to combine deceased relatives to have a family photo, Trung started to do it and felt its meaning, understood the joy of the family when receiving the combined photo. So he became passionate and loved this job!

The completed photo after having the deceased father inserted into his daughter's wedding caused a storm on social media - Photo: TR.THU

With dad on the big day

Working for many people, but each story is a different situation, so Trung remembers almost all of them. "I remember most the story of a single mother who asked to put her husband in a photo so that her children would have some memories of their father. He died because of his habit of taking a bath late at night. I remember it as a warning to myself and others," Trung confided.

Then one day, Trung received a message via Zalo like this: "My father passed away a long time ago, there are no family photos, please help me." The message was sent by Nguyen Van Cong, 23 years old, from Gia Lai. Cong sent Trung a photo of his sister's wedding with all the family members and an old portrait of his late father.

Trung accepted and asked more about his father's appearance. From those descriptions, connecting, the family photo of Cong was completed after nearly 4 hours. Receiving the photo of his sister's happy day with the whole family, with the father holding the mother's hand, Cong and the whole family were moved to tears. That was also the photo that caused a storm on the internet for many days.

Depending on the difficulty of the photo, it can take Trung several days to complete the work. Another difficulty is that the photos are very old, sometimes damaged, so restoring them clearly, depicting facial details and figures to look as similar as possible requires more effort.

"There are cases where the grandfather died young and the grandmother is now old, so to put the grandparents together, we have to make the grandfather older so that they are proportional in age. This is the most difficult part," Trung shared.

No fee

Phung Quang Trung also does not remember how many families he has helped so far. He only remembers that the number is a lot and he agreed to help but did not take any compensation.

Currently, he and his colleagues are still sharing this meaningful work and plan to maintain and develop this volunteer work if conditions are better.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/giup-nguoi-da-khuat-doan-tu-gia-dinh-20220724100404738.htm