Empress Thua Thien Cao

In the hands of a young woman lay half a bar of gold. Only half. Her husband kept the other half and went away into a time of turmoil. That half bar was a promise that they would meet again, and she kept it through all the long years apart. Her name was Tống Thị Lan.

According to the VnExpress newspaper, she was born in 1762. When she was 18, a young man named Nguyễn Phúc Ánh came in person with gifts to ask for her hand. He is the man who later took the throne as Emperor Gia Long. She was named nguyên phi, which means the principal wife at his side.

But life did not scatter flowers for the young couple. These were years of upheaval and war, and her husband had to wander far and wide to build back what his house had lost. At times the two had to part, each going a separate way, with no knowing when they would meet again.

It was in such a time that the half bar of gold came to be. The Hue tourism information center says that when they had to part, he gave his wife half a bar of gold as a token. The two halves fitting together would be the sign by which they knew each other on the day they were reunited. She kept her half with great care, the way one keeps a vow.

For a time she and her mother-in-law had to take shelter on the island of Phu Quoc. It was a faraway island, with waves lapping on every side. Morning and evening she went out to look toward the sea, waiting for a sail, waiting for good news. Day after day she waited quietly, and her heart did not change.

Then her husband won back Gia Định, and she no longer stayed in one place. From then on she followed him everywhere to look after every need. She was known as kind and thrifty, and she cared for the people under her as she would for her own household.

What moved many people most was that she cared even for the soldiers. She sewed their clothes with her own hands. Late at night, by lamplight, the hands of a commander's wife kept stitching one coat after another for sons who were far from their homes. At times she even beat the drum to lift the spirits of the troops, and its ringing sound gave strength to those going into battle.

So she walked beside her husband through all the hard years without a word of complaint. People usually remember the generals and the great battles. But behind all that hardship stood a wife, quiet and tireless as a sewing thread, joining one day to the next without ever breaking.

Then peaceful days came at last. In 1806 she was made empress, the first empress of the Nguyễn dynasty. The Nguyễn dynasty was Vietnam's last royal dynasty, and it reigned from 1802 to 1945. The wife who had once watched for her husband from a faraway island now stood beside him in the capital.

The two halves of gold from long ago had joined at last into one.

She died in 1814, at the age of 53. The emperor grieved deeply for his faithful wife. She was laid to rest right beside the tomb of Emperor Gia Long. The two who had once shared half a bar of gold, and so many hard seasons, were in the end side by side.

Tống Thị Lan carried no sword and went to no battle. What she had was faithfulness. She waited when she had to wait and followed when she was needed. She sewed coats on cold nights, and she kept half a bar of gold until the day it was whole. Light as a thread and stronger than gold, that faithfulness is remembered still.