On the banks of the Mekong River in Ben Tre Province, there lies a grave that cannot be found anywhere else in the country: in the middle of a living room of a big house shared by a living family.

The rectangular marble grave, which sits in front of a solemnly adorned altar dominated by a large portrait of the deceased woman, usually sends shivers down the spine of visitors who step into the home.

Engraved on the top of the grave’s tombstone is: Tran Thi Kim Lien. Born: 1960. Died: 2007.

Lien was a Vietnamese-American who made a fortune by opening a nail salon and a furniture shop in the US. She returned to her homeland and spent all of her hard-earned money erecting a huge house for her mother and brothers.

It had been her dream, spurred on by a rough childhood in which she was hired to carry loads of fish and live in a shabby cottage.

The house was completed in 2006, but a year later, Lien was diagnosed with cancer and returned to the US for medical treatment, where she passed away.

Shortly before her death, Lien told her brother Tran Van Tuan: “I lived with my mother and brothers, so when I die I want to stay with them.”

Her remains were flown home in a beautiful casket, and with permission from local authorities, digging took place inside the house for burial under the tiled floor.

Given environmental concerns, Tuan said no one in his family had shown signs of any ailment that could have been caused by the burial, including contaminated underground water.

“We feel that she is still with us. She is there sleeping in the living room,” he said, adding that the life of the family, which consists of his mother, wife, two children and one brother, had not changed. “We will live with the grave as long as we live here.”

VNN/VNS