RETURN TO VIETNAM
A short film here about our visit to Vietnam to pay homage to the site where Josh died – on the Ho Chi Minh Highway in the province of Vu Quang which is about a days journey south of Hanoi. We visited Saigon and Hoi An where we set candles in the river for Josh’s birthday which also coincided with the full moon festival, before taking the train to Vinh where we were picked up by Uoc who took us to Vu Quang. Uoc is the school teacher who was asked by the police to help translate for Josh’s friends at the time of the accident. He explained to us what happened and introduced us to the policeman who attended the scene and to other witnesses. Uoc often travels more than 20 miles to the site to pay his respects to Josh leaving a packet of biscuits or cakes and lighting incense.
One of the things about our life after Josh died, is that things take a much longer time to accomplish. It wasn’t until two years after his accident that we as a family had the strength to go back to Vietnam in 2013. This footage has been sitting on my computer for almost another two years before I have had the will to shape it into a film. Now it’s done I hope you can enjoy it.
Thanks for watching
Jimmy
Beautiful tribute to Josh. Thank you for making this, Jimmy. You have inspired me. x
Very moving tribute to Josh, and beautifully rendered, as ever.
It is almost incomprehensible to be in a culture where death is acknowledged and not seen as overly morbid, as “getting on with your life” in the UK seems to translate into “behave like you never had a child who died”. xx