Picture and text: Little Fish who loves to dive
People have countless ups and downs in their lives. My mother has endured too much suffering in her 74 years of life. Her experience during this period is like a tragic song of suffering. Now it is a joy to end the hardships and live a different kind of wonderful life.
When I was young, my parents
1997, an unforgettable day. In our hometown, the rural area did not like the number 8. Rural people think that the eight-eight cross is unlucky. In the village’s cadre and branch secretary’s father called me on this day and asked me to go home. At that time, I had just gotten married less than half a year and worked as a farmer rotation worker at Pangzhuang Coal Mine 200 miles away.
When I received my father's call, I felt bad. I got home bumpy all the way and found that my mother was not at home when I entered the yard. My father was lying on the bed in broad daylight, in the dim room. When my father saw me, he turned over and cried heartbrokenly: "My mother is here, what should I do?"
In my memory, the silent and strong father was the only time he cried in front of me, which shows how desperate and helpless my father was at that time. I tried to calm my voice and asked my father what was going on. My father told me the news that my mother had been diagnosed with liver cancer from Shazhuang to Yutai .
At that time, the rural conditions were not good, and every family lived a tight life, relying on several acres of land, no other income, and no medical insurance. A cancer patient could completely drag down a family, and in the end, he had high debts and lost both his money and his people and money.
Next, we drew blood overnight to Xuzhou Fourth People's Hospital for testing. After the hospital was diagnosed with liver cancer, I took my parents to Xuzhou Fourth Hospital and started a long hospitalization treatment.
At that time, one of my cousins was a cadre in Xuzhou Foreign Trade and Economic Affairs. The office and home were not far from the hospital. The rural people had no way, so they asked this relative to help them get admitted to the hospital. The cousins were very good. While contacting the hospital, they arranged their father's residence and enthusiastically asked their father to go to his house for dinner.
My mother was thrifty all her life. At that time, her family had more than two acres of apple orchards. The thousands of kilograms of apples she received every autumn were all from her mother. She used a tricycle to be taken to the nearby Yutai County or Shazhuang Huankou Market and sold them on a scale.
I remember one time, when my mother came home, she hurriedly picked up the water scoop and drank cold water, and wiped her mouth with her sleeve and said, "There are few people selling apples at the market today, and the price is also expensive. I will go and sell them again when the market is not dispersed." I asked her why she was so thirsty, why didn’t she eat an apple?
Mother said embarrassedly: "If you want to sell apples, how can you bear to eat them?" At that time, our family was a medium-sized situation in the countryside. The reason why we didn't live too badly than others was that my mother was careful in calculating and thrifty in the family.
The first time I was in the hospital consultation, I still remember the scene of a gray-haired old doctor named Wang, who asked his mother slowly. The black and thin mother was wearing a yellow floral short-sleeved shirt, crossed her hands uneasily in front of her chest, and answered the doctor's questions in a low and restrained manner.
The next treatment days cost money like flowing. Every afternoon, the hospital will give each bed a small list of medication fees. How much did you spend today and how much will it be left? Is it time to renew it again?
I got married in March 1997. My family didn’t have much savings. I handed over all the more than 3,000 yuan I saved and the 2,000 yuan private money I brought from my parents’ home when I got married to my father.
is not panic when I have money. I remember that my father brought about 10,000 yuan for the first time in hospital. At that time, I was not at ease and asked him to pay the hospital deposit and temporarily deposit the rest into a savings clinic opposite the hospital. From the Pangzhuang Coal Mine where I work, I will be about 40 miles from the Fourth Hospital of Xuzhou. I will ride a bicycle every now and then, and go to the hospital to deliver some food to my parents. The miserable family is Pepsi.
I remember that once I rode a bicycle near Xuzhou Prison. The front fork of the bicycle broke. I fell to the ground without any warning, with my face covered in blood. It took several weeks to get better.
Time flooded my initial memory. In order to write this short article, I asked my father for many details of that year. The thin mother experienced chemotherapy for more than a year. After each chemotherapy, she went home to rest for a while before going. She spent about 30,000 to 40,000 yuan. Almost no patients who were hospitalized with her mother survived. After several chemotherapy sessions, my mother was so weak that she could no longer walk.
I can't guess the mood of my father at that time. My wife had just gotten pregnant at that time. The family suffered this change. You can imagine the pain in the family. Without seeing hope for the patient to recover, the hospital finally refused treatment.
11998 One winter, my mother, who was tortured by the disease, returned to the yard that had been abandoned for a long time with the help of her father. She heard from her father that winter was particularly cold, and the rural conditions were harsh and there was no heating. She carefully served her mother for countless days and nights.
Relatives and neighbors came to greet him sincerely with some gifts, especially thanking a relative in the neighboring village who believed in God, who often came to persuade his mother to believe in Christianity. The desperate family, led by that relative and my uncle, knelt on the ground and prayed for their mother every day, praying for their mother as soon as possible.
In short, whether you believe it or not, the mother who stopped treating slowly miraculously recovered her health and started a new busyness. There was another middle-aged woman selling apples in the nearby market.
Mother was one of the few rural women in that era who knew about writing and literacy. After several chemotherapy sessions, her mother also knew about her condition, but she was neither too afraid nor too pessimistic and desperate. She was calm and calm, eating and drinking. In her words, "I'm just like this, I'm afraid I can't live and earn a day."
Times are getting better. Our brothers worked hard outside, and my father also received his pension. On August 18, 2009, the whole family happily moved into the new home of Fengxian , which attracted the envious and teasing voices of neighbors: "Look at the National Day Mother, go to the building to live in the city to enjoy the happiness!"
The mother who moved into the city had no land and was still busy every day. In spring, she went to the fields and rivers to dig wild vegetables and steamed buns. Autumn is here. She went to the wilderness to pick up wild peas , and collected a pile of small corn cobs left by others after autumn harvest and brought them to relatives in the countryside to feed chickens and ducks. Hardworking people can always find reasons to be busy.
Mother is used to being frugal. Even if her life is better, she is reluctant to spend money. She usually eats leftovers hot and then eats them. In addition to some other bad living habits, it has laid hidden worries for her second time to get sick.
One day in December 2020, my mother often said that her stomach was uncomfortable. My father took her to county hospital for a comprehensive examination and found that there were problems with her stomach and gallbladder . The doctor said confidently: "It's all minor problems. You don't need to ask about gallbladder problems, and the stomach polyps can also be surgically removed."
The careful father did not follow the advice of the county hospital and turned around and went to Xuzhou Second Hospital. The second hospital conducted a comprehensive examination again. The conclusion was contrary to the county hospital, the stomach polyps had little problem, and the focus was on the gallbladder.
At that time, I was far away in Xinjiang and had just been transferred to another department. Facing an unfamiliar environment, I was extremely stressed in my work. I was so busy every day that I couldn't go back to take care of my mother. My younger brother, who was far away in Shenzhen, set off home without saying a word. If he couldn't go back at that time, facing a modern large hospital, my father in his seventies would not be able to deal with it anyway.
Another winter. Just like when I took my parents to Xuzhou for treatment, my younger brother took his mother to Xuzhou Second Hospital alone on January 12, 2021. On January 15, my mother was not seriously injured. Her loud voice could still be heard on the phone. Later, my father said that the stomach polyps that were cut off at that time were found to have signs of cancer.
About ten days later, my mother transferred to the gastrointestinal surgery department for gallbladder surgery. My younger brother felt that the matter was serious, so he asked his father to rush from the county town to Xuzhou Second Hospital to accompany him.
htmlOn November 26, my mother was pushed onto the operating table again. After the gallbladder was removed, my mother lay on the cold operating table waiting for the results. biopsy was an early malignant tumor. The mother who had not left the operating table then underwent a second operation to remove all the infiltrated tissue around the gallbladder to prevent cancer cells from metastasis.
I heard from my brother that the operation of more than 6 hours was extremely long. The poor couple was sad. Along the way, during the difficult days before, my parents quarreled about some trivial matters in life. Facing my mother on the operating table, I think my father should have been more of the debt of his mother's hard work at that time, and this debt in his father's heart gradually turned into a high spiritual dependence on his mother in his future life.
Next, my mother was sent back to the ward. The complications after the operation made the mother in her seventies extremely painful. At this time, my father, who had always been gentle, refused to take care of her mother again. He had never slept with a stable sleep for more than a week.
Mother later often said, "Your father is so angry that he doesn't say anything, he doesn't help the lazy person even if he loses the oil bottle. Without my tone, he will be able to bear it in the future." My father smiled and refused to argue.
A week after my mother's surgery, she returned to her home in Fengxian County to rest in early February due to a tight bed in the hospital. My wife and I rushed back from Xinjiang. Fortunately, our current economic and living conditions have improved greatly compared to the last time we got sick. We lived in a heating room and changed our ways to eat. The most important thing is that the country has rural cooperative medical care, and our family's economy has become much more abundant, so we no longer have to worry about treatment expenses.
When I was chatting during the recovery days, my mother always said with tears in her eyes: "You brothers, you two, and you are in the south, and you are in the north, and what should you do if you are sick or disaster in the future?" I quickly comforted my mother: "I will retire in a few years, and I will not go anywhere after retirement. I will serve you at home." Although that's the case, I can only secretly pray in my heart for my parents' health and safety. Parents' health is the greatest happiness and comfort for wanderers who work hard outside.
The current medical level is different now. My mother no longer needs chemotherapy after this operation. After returning to Shenzhen, my extremely filial brother specially asked a doctor to find out how my mother would recover as soon as possible in the later stage.
Under the careful care of my father, my mother took imported medicines one after another for more than a year. After multiple examinations, all the physical indicators returned to normal.
Every time I chatted, my mother always said that she had many disasters in her life. When my sister was young, she had rheumatoid arthritis . She was so painful that she couldn't walk. She stayed in Shazhuang Health Center for more than a month and did not suffer any problems after being discharged from the hospital. When my younger brother was a child, my mother had tuberculous pleuritis again. After staying in Yutai County Hospital for more than 20 days, she recovered. With the medical and living conditions at that time, it was not easy to survive the difficult time safely.
In my memory, any serious illness, my mother, who usually whispers, was extremely calm and treated with a good attitude. She did not have any pamperingness after recovery. She would soon appear next to the stove, in the farmland, and in the market again. This open-minded mentality and firm and optimistic personality are probably the most important reason why she can overcome the disease several times and live a healthy life to this day.
Recovery mother, her life is very regular now. She gets up at 5 o'clock in the morning, goes out at 5:30 after washing up and goes out at 5:30 after dancing square dance with a group of old ladies, does aerobics , and then walks along Fuxin River . On the way, she meets an old farmer who goes to the city to sell vegetables, so she buys some fresh vegetables.
She came home to make breakfast at 7 o'clock. After breakfast, she washed clothes and hygienic. Sometimes she did some sewing and thread work. It passed without knowing it. After lunch, she took a break for a while, went to the vegetable market and supermarket to buy some daily necessities or discounted seasonal vegetables, and went out for an hour after dinner in the evening, and rested on time at 10 o'clock. The good habits she had adhered to for many years were the biggest health weight for the elderly.
I have two purposes for writing this short article. One is to commemorate the difficult years that the family has experienced. I think our generation has the responsibility to state the hardships that have been experienced to the next generation so that they can understand that a better life is hard-won. Then I would like to remind everyone that some diseases should be diagnosed and treated in large hospitals, so as not to leave lifelong regrets.
Now, I work far away in Xinjiang, so I can only go home once or twice a year. Video chatting with my parents in my spare time has become an indispensable part of my life. In the era of money, only family affection is the truest sentiment.
Set with a passage from Luyao "Ordinary World" as the ending: From a country to an ordinary individual, as long as you have immortal beliefs, plus optimism and strength, one day, the dark clouds will disappear, the sufferings and sins you have suffered will become a beam of light, illuminating the road to the future.
