A Lifetime Spent Serving the Nation

Nguyen Thi Hong is among the many Vietnamese women who overcame myriad challenges to fulfill their roles as wives, mothers, and revolutionary activists during the struggle for the country’s freedom. Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong, who was conferred the exalted Ho Chi Minh Order (Photo: SGGP)

Nguyen Thi Hong is among the many Vietnamese women who overcame myriad challenges to fulfill their roles as wives, mothers, and revolutionary activists during the struggle for the country’s freedom.

A Lifetime Spent Serving the Nation ảnh 1
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong, who was conferred the exalted Ho Chi Minh Order (Photo: SGGP)
 

In 1936, at 16, she and her family left Phung Hiep town in Can Tho Province for Saigon, where she studied at My Ngoc High School.

There she saw the French colonialists brutally suppress many demonstrations and arrest and jail protesters. Inspired by her uncle, Ms Hong became aware of her duty towards her fatherland.

After graduation in 1939 she returned home and began taking part in revolutionary movements, including the seizure of power in Can Tho.

After that, as deputy secretary of the Communist Party Committee of O Mon District, she was a commander in many famous battles in the area, including those at Truong Lac and Truong Thinh communes.

It was during this period that she met and married Luong Chi, a former prisoner at Con Dao. The couple went on to have four children.

Despite being a mother and wife, she managed to fulfill the revolutionary tasks assigned to her.

In 1954, after France and Viet Nam signed the Geneva Treaty, she and her two younger children stayed in the south while her husband went north with the two other kids. But both husband and wife continued with their revolutionary ways.

With operations continuing in 1955, she had to leave her two kids with a relative in Soc Trang Province. “I missed my children very much and wondered how they were doing. How were my two elder children doing in school…?”

Ten years later, at the peak of the war in South Viet Nam, she was transferred to Saigon. Communication with her husband and children became very difficult.

Losing family for country

One day she received news that her husband had married again. She was grief-stricken and unable to sleep at night, brooding over the cards fate had dealt her.

But soon she decided to put such thoughts behind her and continue down the path she had chosen.

During her 20 years as a revolutionary (1955 – 1975) she met her children only four times, each time when she went to Tien Giang Province for conferences. But every time, she had just a few minutes with them – just a few minutes for mother and children to embrace each other in tears.

After peace was restored, on one occasion she went to Ha Noi for a meeting and came across two young men. To her great surprise, they called her “Mom”.

They were her two sons her husband had taken with him. “Mom” had been the cherished word she had longed to hear for over 20 years.

Many years after her husband had married another woman, she too married again. She married Doan Cong Chanh, a comrade of hers in Saigon. They had no children and Mr. Chanh passed away four years ago.

A normal life, finally

Ms. Hong, now 88, lives in a small house in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City. Every morning she goes to the HCMC Club of Former Resistance Fighters, where she is vice chairwoman.

The club’s activities, like organizing anniversary ceremonies for agencies and making certificates for veterans, keep her busy.

Recently Ms. Hong was honored for her great contributions to the nation when President Nguyen Minh Triet conferred the exalted Ho Chi Minh Order.

Her greatest happiness in her old age is that her four children have all succeeded in life and have their own happy families.

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