Nguyen Hong Ngoc (L) poses with the former Czech Republic ambassador to Vietnam Ivo Zdarek.

Nguyen Hong Ngoc sent a text message home saying she was going to a party hosted by the Bulgarian ambassador in Islamabad, promising she would fill in the details after getting back.

Ngoc’s mother and her family have been deep in mourning since.

Sharing their grief with Thanh Nien Thursday, family members spoke of the bright future that she should have had.

Ngoc and her friend, the Czech ambassador to Pakistan, Ivo Zdarek, were killed while attempting to rescue victims from the suicide bomb attack.

They could have fled the hotel after the bombings, but they returned to bring the victims to safety, the Czech Hospodarske Noviny daily quoted Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir as saying.

Ngoc was working for an airline agency in the Czech Republic and had arrived in Pakistan about three weeks earlier on a work mission, her mother said.

Bui Thi Tam, a neighbor of Ngoc’s family in Hanoi, said she deserved respect for her courage.

The attack started a fire that swept through the building, a place favored by foreigners, and killed at least 53 people, Pakistani officials said.

The Czech Republic embassy in Islamabad had intended to fly Ngoc and the ambassador’s bodies back to the Czech Republic, but Ngoc’s family had disagreed, said Ngoc’s uncle Truong.

The embassy has promised to bring Ngoc’s remains back to her family in Hanoi as soon as they can.

Ivo Zdarek, 47, had arrived in Islamabad only last month after finishing a four-year mission as ambassador in Vietnam, the Czech Foreign Ministry’s website said.

The body of the ambassador was flown back to his country in a special military plane on Tuesday this week.

Reported by Xuan Danh – Kap Thanh Long