Zhang Fanghua, | Qingwei: Unforgettable mother and child warm travel

Unforgettable mother and child warm tour

Text/Zhang Fanghua

Whenever I face this photo, a feeling of infinite longing for my mother and infinite nostalgia for the warm swimming of mother and child (daughter) is born!

My parents raised eight of our brothers and sisters in their lives, and they endured the hardships of the world and tasted all kinds of sour, sweet, bitter and spicy, before they pulled us into adulthood with a handful of and urine. Our parents gave us life, gave us family, gave us a future, and gave us happiness. Wholeheartedly repaying the second elder's nurturing grace has become our greatest wish. After seven years of meticulous medical care, our old father, who was paralyzed in bed due to cerebral infarction, finally died, we poured out our filial piety and love to the old woman. In order to let the mother, who has worked hard all her life but has never been far away, enjoy the happiness of the world in her lifetime, we have tried our best to deliberately accompany the elderly out of the house to visit and travel under the premise of ensuring her physical well-being, so that she can see more about the outside world, so as to spend a happy old age.

My mother loved peonies all her life, and we grew up and lived in the world-famous peony capital of China. Therefore, every spring when the flowers bloom, every time the Chinese Heze International Peony Cultural Tourism Festival, we will lead her to Caozhou Peony Garden, to the Hundred Gardens, to the Ancient and Modern Garden, to Tianxiang Park and other places to enjoy the flowers and scenery, and to have fun in the garden. At the same time, she often took her to the stadium to watch the large-scale theatrical performances of the Peony Festival, and went to the Heze Grand Theater and the University of the Elderly to watch the concerts of celebrities and famous artists, and she was always overjoyed. Mother is getting older, out of the infinite cherishing of the limited life time of the elderly, out of the desire for the happiness of the elderly, we have lost no time in arranging some moderate mother-child (female) warm trips near and far. In May 2010, under the rotation of the third and fourth brothers, the four brothers accompanied the octogenarian to Qufu, known as the "Holy City of the East", and visited the famous monuments such as Confucius House, Confucius Temple and Confucius Forest with great interest. This mother-son group photo was taken in front of the "Yangsheng Gate" at the southern gate of Confucius, and the stone forehead of the "Wall of wanling palace" on the door is the imperial inscription of the Qianlong Emperor. In October 2013, also driving a self-driving car, the five of us came to Kaifeng, one of the eight ancient capitals of the mainland, and gladly visited the historical sites such as the main hall, meihua hall, Qianlong Palace, Yingwu Building, and Qingxin Building in Kaifeng Province, and appreciated the three copper hammers that Bao Zheng used in the past. On Mother's Day in 2017, when we were driving by car, eight of our brothers and sisters accompanied the old lady to the Sun Bin Tourism City located in Juancheng and visited the famous scenic spots such as the sun bin memorial hall, the great Buddha hall, the Tibetan scripture cabinet, the ancestral hall, the galan hall, and the hall of the four heavenly kings. And so on, every trip gives the mother an unparalleled sense of freshness and pleasure, and this sense of freshness and pleasure is simply immeasurable for the comfort of the old man's body and mind, for its health benefits, and for the excitement of its vitality. Just as every time she visits her old man's face will be filled with a pleasant smile, every time she sees the peony, her old man will issue a sigh of "this time I will live for five more years", we will always be pleased with such a good effect brought by such a warm mother-son (female) trip. As a result, we have always enjoyed it. Our next plan was to take my mother to Beijing to see Tiananmen Square and Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall, and my mother's happiness when she heard about it was not to mention it.

However, the day did not go according to people's wishes, just when we were carefully preparing and looking forward to the beautiful moment when mother and son (daughter) went to the capital together, my mother had a heart attack, and although the treatment was ineffective, she died suddenly at the age of eighty-nine on the Chongyang Festival in 2017. This bad news, like a thunderbolt on a sunny day, startled us six gods and no masters, and we were caught off guard. But in the face of irreversible reality, we can only mourn and cry. Watching our mother's eyes never open again, without the slightest power to return to heaven; watching our beautiful plans suddenly vanish into vain, and helpless flowers fall. How we miss the beautiful moments of a warm and happy outing with our mother, how much we hope to stay with our mother day and night forever, how much we hope to accompany our mother to enjoy all the beautiful scenery in the world, and how much we hope that the happiness of our mother and son (daughter) can last forever!

Writing this, I suddenly remembered the famous saying of the ancients that "the tree wants to be quiet and the wind is not stopping, and the son wants filial piety and does not wait", even if we have great power, we cannot resist the laws of nature; even if we have full of love, we cannot stop the footsteps of our relatives who will eventually leave. The only thing we can do is to fight for the day and night, and put the love for our relatives and the filial piety of our parents into action without reservation.

About the Author:

Zhang Fanghua, pen name Qingquan, a native of Heze City, Shandong Province, is a member of the Chinese Essayists Association, a member of the Shandong Writers Association, a member of the Western China Essay Society, a member of the Shandong Provincial Prose Literature Association, and an advisor and former vice chairman of the Heze Writers Association. His works have been published in newspapers and periodicals such as China Procuratorate, China Discipline Inspection and Supervision Daily, Shandong Literature, Times Literature, Qinghai Lake, Writers Daily, Contemporary Prose, Selected Western Prose, Heze Daily, Peony Evening News, etc.; he has won the National Outstanding Literary and Art Works Award, the First Cai Wenji Literary Award, the Qilu Literary Works Annual Exhibition Excellence Award, the Times Literature Annual Prose Award, and the First Peony Literature Award. He is the author of the essay collection "Song of the Heart", "Looking Up and Flying", and the poetry collection "Feelings Of Attachment".

Editor: Ma Xuemin

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