“Relentless Valor.” Authors Kenneth D. Hughes and Richard J. Hast, available on Amazon. Comments are welcome.
They had been walking north along the main coastal highway that paralleled the east coast of all
of Vietnam. They kept off the berm for fear of booby traps…
Despite the drizzle, the baby cocooned in silk wrappings and a blanket, slept although he was
tussled with the up and down footfalls of his mother. She heard her Ma’ praying to God for her grandchild’s future. She began crying again…
She was determined to get her baby to the Van Coi orphanage, run by the Catholic Church. It had a reputation of accepting children fathered by Americans and even the Viet Cong.
As the storm gathered… She moved into a sprig of tall grass across from the main gate into the orphanage. She sat huddled there, her mother reached up and touched her shoulder. “It’s for the best,” she reassured her. The three-week-old infant, cradled in her arms, turned his head side to side as his voice squeaked in a cry of hunger. The young mother offered her left breast. As the baby suckled, she yearned for his father, her American lover who had promised to come back and bring her to the United States. Except for her mother, the village and her family had ostracized her and her son. It was obvious that her son was fathered by an American. She loved his red hair, a trait he had passed on to his son.
Her mother whispered, “We must go now before the storm begins.”
She tearfully cried, “Ma,’ let him finish!” She asked her mother to unclasp her necklace that held a gold cross given to her as a gift of faith… Lightning flashed in the distance, streaking across the darkening sky, followed by a deep rumbling. The child’s grandmother offered, “I can take him.” “No, no, no,” her daughter sobbed, pulling him tighter to her chest. She stood and ran toward the gate. Anh opened her arms to cradle this new foundling. The mother kissed his forehead dripping tears across his cheeks. “His name is Giuse,” she said…
