Mother's last days

Ding Xinbo

Recently, when I went to bed at night, I always dreamed of my mother, and I dreamed of the time before my mother left that year. Called my sister, who said that her mother had been gone for almost ten years.

Ten years, trance like a world away. The last appearance of the mother is still vividly remembered.

On the last day of the son's middle school entrance examination, my sister called and said that my father was no longer able to do it. I quickly asked my colleague to drive and take our family back to my hometown to meet my last father. Hearing that we had returned, My Father nodded and left us after a while. Before this, my father said to my eldest brother and sister, I am gone, I am most uneasy about your mother, I hope to take care of your mother's life as I did to me.

The day my father left was the Dragon Boat Festival. The mother worked alone in the field in front of the house, sending her father away in an unspeakable silence. When my father was buried, my mother's eyes were full of tears, and she watched ShouCai carry her out of the house and walk step by step to the cemetery.

After my father left, my mother suddenly grew old. Every New Year's Festival, my third brother and I went home to visit my mother, and my mother's words mostly told us not to worry, there is a big brother, a second brother, and a younger sister to take care of, let us raise our children into adults. Sometimes, the mother nags, which old man in the village is sick, and which old man is gone, we listen to it is not a taste, said to the mother, you are in good health, no big problems, good pension, your life expectancy is long.

After a period of time in my hometown, I felt that my mother was a little lonely, and it was not very convenient to eat what to eat and what to use, so I suggested that my mother still go to my sister's house. The sister lives in Huangqiao, the brother-in-law is kind, the father is at the sister's house at the last moment, taking care of the father very thoughtfully, the mother looks in the eyes, heard that the sister's family lives, she agreed. The younger sister quit her job working in Huangqiao and single-mindedly took care of her mother. In those two years, my mother did not have any major physical problems and was in a happy mood.

However, when the mother was young, because she raised 5 children, she also had to do heavy work in the production team, get more work points, and work hard for more grain; at home, she had to take care of several children, physically and mentally exhausted; outside, she also had to help neighbors and friends, and worry about all kinds of hearts. When I get old, some problems occur in my body from time to time. One year, my mother suddenly fell ill, my sister rushed to the hospital, I also rushed back to my hometown to visit my mother, my mother said, old problems, do not get in the way, you have a job, the children are going to school again, don't delay. After staying in the hospital for a few days, her condition eased, and my mother was reluctant to spend money and was discharged from the hospital. My sister had to go through the discharge procedures for her.

One day, her sister returned from an errand outside, found her mother missing, and quickly mobilized relatives to help find her. It turned out that the second sister-in-law took her mother back to be a blessed person because the neighbor's family married a daughter-in-law. My mother raised me and my third brother, two college students, and I was praised as a blessed person in the village, and if there was a happy event in the neighbor's family, I had to invite my mother to go. However, this neighbor has some contradictions with my family, and I have always had a problem with his family. But the mother was very generous, and after the neighbor brought the words, the mother did not say anything, and happily went to his house to be a blessing and brought a gift of congratulations.

After a while, the mother's body began to age significantly. Despite this, she did not trust her grandchildren. Some grandchildren have gone to college, she is still concerned all the time, every summer winter vacation, see the grandchildren come back, especially happy, ask cold and warm. One winter, when it was snowing heavily, my granddaughter Ying'er got married and was running at home, and my mother was lying in bed and was very happy to see me rushing back from Yangzhou to participate. My mother told me that she had no money on her, and she wanted to give her granddaughter and son-in-law some money, and she wanted me to quietly give her some money. After I gave my mother money, my mother quickly called her granddaughter-in-law into the room, gave him happy money, and wished them a good life.

After my father left, consciously or unconsciously, my mother often thought about her own life. In the countryside, the elderly are very concerned about the purchase of shou materials, and some prepare early, brush and paint the shou materials well, and put them at home to be assured. Mothers have this idea too. After discussing with our brothers and sisters, we bought a heavy shou material for our mother and put it in the old house, and my mother was very satisfied after seeing it. Mother said that when the little aunt was alive, the jujube red paint brushed inside the shou material felt atmospheric, and she also wanted to brush the jujube red paint, not black paint. She said that the jujube red paint felt gentle and warm, and after leaving, she did not feel afraid. We followed my mother's wishes and painted the dates red.

In the later stage, the sister had to go to the hospital for surgery because she was sick, so she had to send her mother to her hometown and let the second brother and sister-in-law take care of her. After my sister was discharged from the hospital, she often cooked some fish soup and bought some vegetables to strengthen her mother's nutrition. But the mother had eaten very little, her brain had begun to be confused, it was difficult to speak, and the whole person was particularly confused. My sister called me and my third brother several times and asked us to be mentally prepared. Sometimes, when I look at her from Yangzhou, her eyes are wandering. I said, Mom, I'm My Uncle, come back to see you, do you recognize me? Mother nodded, a familiar smile on her face. I squatted down and held my mother's hand, which had become thick, stiff, and thin, and perhaps this was the last of the kindness that my mother had passed on to me.

Seeing her mother's deteriorating health, her sister bought her mother's birthday clothes, quilts and funeral supplies after she left. The sister was very careful, these supplies, whether it was style, color, size, with softness and warmth, the mother nodded after reading it. A few days later, my sister suddenly called and said that her mother was no longer able to do it. Hearing the phone call, my wife and children rushed home, and the third brother and sister-in-law also rushed back from Shandong to bid farewell to my mother. My mother left on the twentieth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar that year.

The mother's affairs were handled at the second brother's house. Friends and relatives kept coming to worship, and our brothers and sisters took turns to keep the spirits. Finally, the funeral was about to come out, and it was raining heavily in the sky, and the workers who dug the graves braved the heavy rain and dug with shovels and shovels. Early in the morning of the seventh day, at four o'clock in the morning, the mother was moved to the hearse and taken to the funeral home for cremation. After the mother's ashes are retrieved, the ashes are sprinkled into the shou wood. The moment the carpenter took the hammer and nailed my mother's coffin with long iron nails, it seemed to be nailed to my heart: Where can my weak mother withstand such a beating? A scream sounded, and the mother's coffin slowly left the home that left her affection and hope. Previously, they were away from home only for the convenience of care or a short parting. This time away from home is a permanent departure from home. The villagers also came to the tomb, braved the heavy rain, and made a final farewell to the mother of the thick road.

That night, according to rural customs, my sister invited a singing team to sing in front of her house, and the neighbors came to see the opera and listen to the play. Most of the drama teams played out the loving and industrious dramas of ancient mothers. When an actress sang the plot of the weeping mother, the heart-rending, the ghostly feelings, made me and my brothers and sisters burst into tears again: tonight I will never see my mother again, and my mother is in the self-reserved field behind her hometown, where there is my father as a companion. They have a stormy life and are still together in heaven.

Every year during the Spring Festival and Qingming Festival, the eldest brother and sister have to sort out the graves of their parents. This year's Qingming Festival, I also returned to my hometown, to the graves of my parents to offer flowers, burn paper, surrounded by rape flowers, to pay tribute to mourning.

In my dreams, I thought that although my parents were in heaven, they were still protecting their children and grandchildren.

In my heart, I thought, with us, my parents will not go far, we will not go away.