Bring your brothers and sisters home!

During the historic days of July, TeamLee group of young man Le Quyet Thang, born in 1991, from Nghe An, brought martyrs' memorial photos to give to martyrs' families in Nghe An and Ha Tinh.

Receiving the reconstructed color portrait of her son – Martyr Nguyen Van Dong, born in 1957, in her hands, mother Nguyen Thi Ba, 96 years old, residing in Thanh Chuong district, could not hide her emotion. Seeing the photo of Martyr Dong in a dark blue military uniform sitting next to her, mother Ba was moved to tears.

Mom cherished the color photo of him and said she would keep it carefully, and hug it every time she slept. “This is my son Dong. He used to be handsome and a good student. But he left me too soon. I am still here but you are no longer here…”, Ba’s mother’s eyes filled with tears.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Tinh, Ba's third son, his mother's memory is not as sharp as before, sometimes she remembers, sometimes she forgets. "But there is one thing my mother never forgets: every morning she looks up at the altar, where Dong's portrait is placed, and talks. Her eyesight is so bad that she can hardly see his picture anymore, but now thanks to the restored photo, she can see him more clearly. The family is very grateful to TeamLee for restoring Dong's photo and hopes that many families of martyrs will receive this meaningful gift," Tinh said with a choked voice.

Receiving 2 photos of her 2 martyr children, Vietnamese Heroic Mother Nguyen Thi Thanh could not hold back her emotions and burst into tears. This year, she turned 94 years old but she never forgot her 2 children. She had 2 sons who were martyrs, one was a youth volunteer, the other was a soldier in the Southwest border. Her crying made everyone present shed tears. Receiving 2 photos wrapped in the national flag, Thanh's mother choked up and said: "Nhan, Chan, come back to me,...

The emotions of the relatives when receiving the martyrs' photos are hard to describe. There are sadness, tears and happiness. Because after the martyrs pass away, the relatives only have one wish, which is to have the photos placed on the altar. But sometimes, that wish makes them ache for decades when they cannot fulfill it. The photos stained with time restored by TeamLee group somewhat ease the pain of the martyrs' families.

More than 300 photos delivered to relatives

After more than a year of implementing the Free Photo Restoration Project to help families of martyrs who died in the wars in Vietnam, TeamLee has restored about 300 portraits of martyrs. Currently, the group has 12 members, but 9 members are in charge of photo restoration, the other 3 members are in charge of communication and logistics.

In particular, in the gratitude journey this July, TeamLee group will present 17 reconstructed portraits of martyrs in Nghe An and Ha Tinh...

Accordingly, Mr. Le Quyet Thang is the one who initiated the idea of ​​restoring martyrs' photos for free as gifts for relatives. This young man's main job is interior design. However, in his spare time, he edits photos for free for many people on social networks, collages photos of deceased relatives through reunion photos; and restores old photos.

Talking about the opportunity to restore photos for martyrs, Mr. Thang said that late at night on April 30, 2022, while surfing the internet, he saw a comment from a nephew who wanted to restore a martyr uncle. After carefully reviewing the information, he saw that behind the pencil sketch was the story of that martyr uncle, who died on the battlefield before the liberation day. Now there is only a black and white pencil sketch left as a memorial photo. He hopes to be supported to have a more "real" photo of his uncle. That same night, Mr. Thang completed the restoration of the color photo of the martyr and decided to go to the house to give it to the family.

According to Mr. Le Quyet Thang, the free photo restoration project to help families of martyrs started on June 20, 2022. The initial goal was only 75 photos, because at that time it was very difficult to contact the families of martyrs, most of whom were elderly. The most difficult things were the old photos, the lines were lost; the pencil sketches, the ink had faded, the lines were not realistic, the group had to restore the portraits based on the descriptions of the relatives.

Mr. Thang said that it takes about 6 hours to restore each photo. However, some photos are so old and damaged that the group has to spend 2-3 days to restore them.

“The sacrifice of the heroic martyrs in exchange for peace and independence for the nation makes us young people always feel respectful and grateful. Everyone in the group is willing to spend time to restore the photos for free as a way to show gratitude to the heroic martyrs and to somehow ease the pain of those left behind... Currently, the number of messages asking for the restoration of photos of martyrs that the group receives every day is very large, but due to the limited human resources of TeamLee, it is still not possible to respond to all of them. Therefore, I hope that photographers across the country will join in and share with the group, a small but meaningful job,” Mr. Thang added.

Minh Tam - Ha Hang