Ahead of Vietnamese Women's Day on October 20, the family group chat of Nguyen Thi Luong (born in 1996, from Quan Thanh Commune, Nghe An Province) became exceptionally lively -- six siblings, with each pitching an idea for a gift to give their mother. 

Luong and her sisters wanted it to be a sweet surprise to bring a little extra joy to their mother on this special occasion. 

The mother whom Luong's sisters cherish with all their hearts is their stepmother, Phan Thi Thuy (born in 1971, native of Nghe An).

Her presence in their lives over the past 23 years has convinced them that the adage "a stepmother can never be a true mother" is nothing more than a myth.

Luong's birth mother passed away in 2003, leaving behind four young daughters: the eldest was 15, the second 13, the third 6, and the youngest 2 years old.

Shortly afterward, Luong's father, Nguyen Bui Dat (born in 1970), brought Thuy home to introduce her. Luong's eldest sister was upset because their father remarried so soon after their mother's passing. Luong, who was only 6 years old at the time, did not fully grasp adult matters, but she still felt deeply sad.

"I still remember the first time she came over. She wore a white shirt, trousers, and her long hair flowed dowm. She looked very neat and feminine.

"That year, she was 32 years old and had never been married, yet she agreed to marry my father, a widowed man with four children of his own," Luong recalled.

Thuy admitted that back then, she agreed to marry Dat not because of him, but because of those four young children.

Living in the same commune, one family at the head of the river and the other at the end, she had often heard about the family's plight. Upon visiting, seeing four scruffy children, the eldest skinny and sunburned, the youngest crying inconsolably for milk, her heart ached.

"My life had been full of hardship, and I didn't want those four young children to suffer like me. I only thought that I wanted to come and care for them," Thuy said.

Living under difficult circumstances, the family of six shared a dilapidated house. Thuy and her husband worked both in the fields and as manual construction helpers to earn a living and provide for the children.

She arranged everything neatly and prepared hot meals for the kids. When the 2-year-old toddler cried ceaselessly through the night out of hunger and longing for her mother, Thuy held and cradled her all night long.

During particularly tough times, she went around borrowing fish and bowls of rice to ensure her children had warm, full meals. Once, when Luong fell severely ill, Thuy cycled 35 kilometers to retrieve medicine for her.

Recalling the moments now, "my heart breaks with love for her," Luong said.

Admiration for stepmother

However, it took years for Luong to fully grasp the love and tolerance her stepmother offered.

She admitted that during the early years after Thuy arrived, prejudices about "stepmothers and stepchildren," coupled with teasing from schoolmates, made her stubborn.

Luong sometimes talked back, deliberately misbehaved, or skipped school out of defiance. Yet Thuy never resented her for it; instead, she continued to care for and guide her stepdaughter.

"Back in ninth grade, I got into a fight with a classmate, and their parents came straight to our house. My stepmother apologized, and pleaded with them not to report it to the school so I wouldn't face disciplinary action. That was the moment I first felt the comfort of having a mother protect me.

"Later on, my mother gave birth to two more children, a boy and a girl. I realized she never discriminated between her own biological children and her stepchildren, treating everyone with equal fairness," Luong recalled.

It was only after Luong married and became a mother herself that she profoundly felt the depth of love and selfless devotion her stepmother had given her.

Among Luong's six siblings, four are married. Though living far from home, the siblings pool money every month to support their parents.

Thanh Minh