Spring remembers mother… | SAIGON GIAI PHONG NEWSPAPER

Tet is perhaps the most sacred moment for people and families to reunite. Tet is also the time when each person "Reviews the past - Learns the present", turns to the roots with gratitude to ancestors and grandparents who have built and taught their descendants cultural traditions and good moral values, as well as looks to the future with faith, optimism, and wishes for good things and luck in the new year...

This Tet, my heart feels lighter, no longer tearful like the past Tets, every time I think about my mother - the person I love the most in the world.

Time flies, 3 years have passed since the sad Tet holiday when my siblings and I lost our mother. I remember that Tet holiday, the Tet holiday when the Covid-19 pandemic spread to every hamlet, every corner... Knowing the danger of the pandemic, my siblings and I were still very cautious and careful because our mother was over 60 years old. My mother was healthy and had no underlying diseases. Normally, my mother was satisfied with her job selling small groceries in front of the house, selling small and miscellaneous items to people in the neighborhood. When the pandemic hit, we all wanted my mother to stop selling to avoid contact with the source of infection. Although we were so careful, in the end, we could not avoid it. The house next door had a neighbor who worked as a driver. He traveled a lot and tested positive. My whole family was also infected because the two houses were next to each other, only separated by a B40 net.

Young people like us quickly overcame it. As for our mother, she did not survive! On the twenty-seventh day of the Lunar New Year, my family was shrouded in mourning. My mother returned from the hospital as nothing more than an urn of ashes! My tears never stopped flowing until the following Lunar New Year. Every time the Lunar New Year approached, a heart-wrenching sadness welled up in my heart. I missed my mother! The following Lunar New Year, when I saw my sister (the one who resembled my mother the most from her face to her gait) picking mai leaves in the front yard, I burst into tears. Looking at my nephew, my sister's son who was about to get married during the peak days of the pandemic, I felt so much love that I could not express it. I remember that time, he called my mother on video call in the hospital, when she woke up: "Grandma, please get well soon and get married for me, grandma!" I remember, when I gave birth to my little girl before the covid-19 pandemic spread, due to the nature of my work, I had to send my daughter to her grandmother, and my mother was the one who single-handedly took care of her every meal and sleep. When my child learned to call out "Quái, Quái, Quái"... that was also the time when I felt numb and my chest ached because my mother was no longer there.

At first, when my mother passed away, I hated my neighbor very much. I cried and hated him for being so careless that he infected my whole family. I have not seen him since then. Every Tet holiday after that, I just saw him drinking and laughing while I lost my mother. I hated him so much. But this Tet holiday, after calming down, I realized that no one wanted that.

Looking at the pots of marigolds blooming brightly, my heart still can't stop missing my mother.

This Tet, looking at the jar of pickled onions my sister made the way my mother taught her, then the pot of braised pork and duck eggs the same way my mother braised them, the way my sister set up the family altar for Tet, to the tray of five fruits on the altar... everywhere I looked, I saw my mother's figure. I imagined my mother's figure sweeping the yard, her mother tiptoed to pick each apricot leaf, carefully caring for each flower bud for fear of breaking it. Looking out to the third row, I saw my mother's figure busily moving each pot of chrysanthemums and marigolds to both sides of the path, I thought I could hear my mother's voice: "This year's marigolds are so beautiful!" Those were the pots of marigolds that my mother planted herself. Every year, my mother waited until around October, when the north wind was gentle and the flood water had just receded, and she sowed the marigolds. Then she watched the growth of the plant and picked the tops so that the plant would sprout many buds and produce many flowers. When Tet was over, my mother picked the old marigolds, dried them, and saved them for the next Tet to plant again. My mother is very good at growing flowers for Tet, so every year during Tet, my house is bright with the yellow and red colors of marigolds. Every full moon of the twelfth lunar month, my mother watches the weather to pick the apricot leaves. She says that we have to pick according to the flowers and buds. If the weather is cold, we should pick on the full moon or the 20th of the twelfth lunar month, so that the apricot blossoms bloom exactly on the first day of Tet. Thanks to that, every year the apricot blossoms bloom bright yellow on the first day of Tet. My mother said that if the apricot blossoms like that, our family will have a very lucky year. My mother didn't teach us much, but we were all familiar with those familiar things, remembered them, and followed them.

In the old Tet holidays, my mother often picked old flowers to dry and save for the next Tet. Now my sister is the one who inherits her mother's job of growing flowers for Tet.

This Tet, my porch is also filled with the colors of apricot and marigold flowers, but those are pots of flowers that my sister planted and picked herself. On the 30th of Tet, my family also has a tray of offerings to welcome our ancestors like when my mother was alive, there is still braised meat, pickled onions, stewed bitter melon, and various cakes and jams made from my mother's recipe. Looking at those familiar things and looking at my brother, sister, and children, I feel a sense of comfort. Because I understand that no one can avoid the law of life and death. And I see my mother still present here, in my sister's face, in my brother's voice, her blood always flows in each of us, the good cultural values of Tet as well as the way of life and kind behavior that my mother taught us are still preserved. We still promise our mother that we will live a good life, worthy of her giving birth to us, raising us, and the good things she taught us while she was alive.

NGUYEN KIM BONG

Cao Lanh City, Dong Thap

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