“A year, 10 months apart, I still want to be reunited with children. At 47, this is the first time I’ve celebrated Tet away from my hometown,” Thinh said. Every day, a couple from Hai Duong, who are currently opening a restaurant selling nutritious porridge in a coastal township of Thanh Hoa, still call their children. But no one was “brave” to say they can’t get together during Tet.
After learning that Chi Linh City had 72 Covid-19 cases, the man was away from his hometown, fearing that his family and relatives in the countryside would have close contact with the patients. It was hot in the central region that day, but while surfing the phone, his hands were shaking.
Thinh’s hometown is Thanh Mien, about 50 km from the epidemic center of Chi Linh. The last return of his family dates back to a month. The couple’s health is normal, so Thinh thinks “there is no virus in him”. However, after the call home, the porridge shop owner and his wife rode a motorbike to the local medical station to make a medical statement.
“It shows a sense of responsibility to the community and also a way of building trust for an out-of-province vendor with locals,” he said. After the declaration and temperature taking procedures, the couple returned home and quarantined in accordance with the regulations.
Because there is no risk of infection, he and his wife are allowed by the government to continue opening goods for a living during the Tet holiday away from home. Every day he would ask his neighbors to buy food for him, call the food vendors to come, and drop it off at the door. Customers call to order porridge. Thinh left the food on the chair in front of the door. He left, the new client came to pick him up.
Residents of Chi Linh, Hai Duong take samples to test for Covid-19. Photo: Ministry of Health.Four years ago, Quang Thinh and his wife decided to go to Thanh Hoa with their children to open a porridge shop. After all these years here, people from the commune with young children have visited his shop. “In times of translation, those who understand are encouraged, while others speak rudely. I don’t mind, just thinking about being away from my children on New Year’s Day is painful,” Thinh’s voice was low.
When her son was four years old, Thinh sent him back to his hometown to study, with his grandparents taking care of him. A year, they stay together the longest during summer and Tet.
This year, Mr. Thinh plans to return to his hometown on the 28th. Like every year, the father will buy peaches and kumquats, and the mother will prepare a new shirt for the child. This year, Tet is coming, the epidemic also “returns”, and you can’t go back. “The inn is spacious to exhibit, but the heart is not buying Tet,” he smiled sadly.
Unlike Mr. Thinh, the family of Minh Duc – Huyen My (both 25 years old) is at the center of the outbreak – Chi Linh City, Hai Duong. Duc’s mother is a teacher in this town, so she interacts with many students and parents. If there is F0 here, it could also be on the F1 list.
Already on the morning of January 28, when the media had not yet announced a new infection, Germany learned the news from home. He immediately asked to leave the company and return home to self-isolate. Huyen My just underwent fatal surgery not too long ago. They just returned to their hometown 20 days ago. Concern for his wife and parents back home filled his mind.
When Duc returned home, Huyen My quickly packed up boxes of masks, hand sanitizer and resistance-boosting drugs – which she still sells online and sends to her husband’s hometown. Knowing his mother’s stress, Duc sometimes called her back to encourage her. He also immediately made a medical statement. The couple and their parents in the countryside have been ordered to self-isolate at home for 21 days.
The outbreak of the epidemic means Huyen My’s plans to return to her husband’s hometown for the first time to celebrate Tet are “completely broken”. Born and raised in Hanoi, she has never spent a Tet holiday in her hometown. My parents divorced when she was 2 years old. Being able to eat a Tet gathering in a close-knit family like her husband’s is also something My is very excited about.
Huyen My and her husband when the epidemic had not yet broken out. Photo: Character provided.Since last month, the couple have discussed buying things for Tet. My said she would buy lots of chrysanthemums and plant them in a golden strip around her garden. She also packed the sweets home. At home, Minh Duc’s parents raise a flock of chickens and plant beds of green vegetables to welcome their son and his wife to Tet.
But the epidemic lasts until only half a month before spring. “These days are stressful, my family doesn’t care about Tet or not. I just hope everyone in the family is healthy and pushes back the epidemic soon,” Chi Linh’s daughter-in-law said.
This year should have been the most meaningful year since her marriage to Hoang Hue, 30, in Cao Bang. After four years of marriage, several times Eastern and Western medicine, she became pregnant earlier this year. The nickname “male perch” that the whole village tagged her has been removed. No longer obsessed with demands from neighbors for being “pregnant forever,” Hue is looking forward to returning to her hometown this spring.
“I haven’t attended class reunions for the past few years because my friends all hold their children and I feel sorry for myself when I go. But this year the chat group announced the reunion, so I signed up right away,” she said. She was due to give birth on January 7, but still bought two more maternity dresses for go out for Tet.
In early December, Hue showed signs of giving birth. Colleagues advised her to leave early, but she wanted to try to work so she could stay home with her children longer after giving birth. A few days later, the disease resurfaced. A Hue company employee has a family member who is positive for nCoV. The pregnant woman suddenly becomes F2. Although her colleague tested negative twice, Hue still had to self-isolate in the motel room. Her husband works in the countryside, three days in a row she can only call the delivery man at the door of the motel room.
Knowing that she could give birth before the expected time, but Hue could not return to her hometown. “Medical staff call me every day to monitor and above all, I can’t be unconscious when the whole country needs consciousness the most,” she said. The only way Hue could have her husband by her side during the birth was for him to pick her up in a private car. The couple were then isolated at home.
“But he hesitated with this option. He was scared, he was told to wait and listen more,” the woman was disappointed. Lying alone in her room for three days, she felt both sorry for herself and sad that she had not being able to go out in the middle of her need to be active to give birth.
A billboard “Vietnam is determined to win the pandemic” in central Ho Chi Minh City during the days of social isolation. Photo: Huu Khoa.After days of worry and anger, Hue made sure that if she were to give birth, her isolation would be over. If the “angel came into the world” soon, the mother still believes that she can receive her child in peace. “In the middle of the capital, why worry about medical care,” she encouraged herself.
Quang Thinh also thought more positively. “Fortunately, where I live and my hometown are not dangerous areas. A lot of families still have to separate and quarantine themselves, but they’re still getting through it,” he often encouraged when he saw his wife sobbing. Thinh calculates that in a few days he will ask his grandparents on both sides to buy Tet and cheer on his son. Now that there is internet, the whole family will celebrate the New Year together online.
As for Huyen My’s in-laws, “thanks to quarantine”, they realized that they had been too busy for many years. “It’s been a long time since I took such a long vacation,” the beekeeper told his children. He intends chickens reared for Tet meat to eat gradually during the isolation period. But he still saved a few children, so that on January 6, after the end of the epidemic, the end of the isolation, the whole family will join “Tet make up”.
Pham Nga – Vnexpress
