My paternal grandmother

17-09-2014

My paternal grandmother

(A story of War)

                                             By:  Doan Thi Le Nhung

I was born in a small village in the middle of Vietnam. Athough my family was poor , I lived in love of my parents and grandfather. Like many children, I wished to listen to fairy tales from grandmother. But I didn’t see my grandmother because she died before I was born. Why and how she died I didn’t know. I heard this from my uncle.

My uncle told me that my grandmother was a very caring, responsible woman. She did two jobs at the same time: brought up children and worked to support family because at that time the Country was in war, her husband had joined the army. She was burdened with great hardship, but she was unyielding to overcome difficulties to raise her children to become good citizens.

 One fateful day came.  It was in the afternoon of July 1968,while working in the field, my grandmother heard the roar of a plane flying. She knew it was a war plane flying to drop bombs in this area. She ran home quickly and told her thirteen year son, my uncle, to run into the tunnel to avoid bombs.Then she went inside the house and took my aunt towards the tunnel too. When she was near the edge of the tunnel, a piece of bomb fell on her . Blood poured from a deep gash in her head. Nobody was there to bandage the wound for her. She had lost a lot of blood so was very weak. She knew she couldn’t live longer. Pressing one hand to the wound on her head,she held my aunt in her other arm  and  tried to push her daughter into the tunnel.After that she died.

At  that time my grandfather was in the army, my father was at university which was far from home, my aunt was only two years old. Only my uncle witnessed that scene.He cried painfully over what was happening. Every night when  my baby aunt cried for mother , my thirteen year old uncle would call out to heaven “mei”. Surely, my aunt grew up in love of her brother, without mother love, which was necessary for a child.  Three years later, in 1971, my uncle sent his younger sister to a relative and volunteered to join the army.  He was 17 years old then. He joined the army because he loved  his mother, his younger sister, his Country. Fighting in many battles, seeing planes dropping Napan bombs he found that the war was severe.It was absolutely terrifying. Until now it has a devastating effect on him. War has caused him loss and hurt which can never be replaced or healed.

I didn’t experience like my uncle, but I hate the war. It not only took my grandmother from us but also left Vietnamese people pain and sad losses. I would like no war in the world. I want human to live together and love each other.