Maybe everyone has heard of anti-cancer hospitals, but they don't necessarily know the "anti-cancer kitchen".
There is an "anti-cancer kitchen" in Nanchang, Jiangxi, which does not turn off the fire for 18 years and does not close for 18 years. The annual flow of people is as high as tens of thousands of people, which has become a unique local landscape.
The people who opened this kitchen were Wan Zuocheng and Xiong Gengxiang.
Although they have passed the age of flower armor, they have used their love and perseverance to bring hope of life and courage to overcome the disease to countless cancer patients and their families.
With good intentions in mind, open a "one-dollar kitchen"
Wan Zuocheng is 67 years old and Xiong Gengxiang is two years younger than him, and they run this "anti-cancer kitchen" in the Qingshan Lake District of Nanchang, Jiangxi Province.
More than a decade ago, the couple rented a house in this alley next to the cancer hospital to sell breakfast.
Every morning at about six o'clock, Wanzuo Chengdu will fry a thousand fritters to sell. Because the taste is authentic, the business is not bad.
In the past two years, in order to run this kitchen well, the couple has given up the business of fried fritters.
Maybe everyone is curious, why doesn't the couple sell delicious breakfast now, and run this "one dollar kitchen" that does not make money?
This has to start from before 2003.
Wan Zuocheng always remembers that morning 18 years ago vividly. That day, he and his wife had just finished frying fritters and were preparing to close the stall when a couple of about forty years old came to their stall with a little boy in a wheelchair.
Wan Zuocheng thought that they had come to buy fritters, so he greeted each other kindly.
However, the wife carefully asked: "Big brother, my child is ten years old this year, has bone cancer, and is now living in a cancer hospital, one leg has been amputated, and the child wants to eat a bite of his mother's meal." Can you lend me a bit of this stove? When he finished, tears flowed down his face.
Seeing the child's empty pant legs and thin little face, Wan Zuocheng's nose couldn't help but sour a little.
He turned around and found a stir-fry spoon from the house and handed it to the child's mother, saying to them, "Come and fry it, it's close to the hospital, you can come every day." ”
The child's mother quickly thanked her and said, "We can give you money." ”
Wan Zuocheng waved his hand and said, "No money! Anyway, after frying the fritters, there is still an ember, you come and use this fire to stir-fry the dish. ”
Since then, the couple has come here every day to borrow fire, and the children have happily eaten the meal made by their mother.
I thought it was a small thing that was not enough to hang my teeth, but within a few days, the cancer hospital spread: there was a breakfast shop selling fritters next to the hospital, which could cook on the fire.
A few days later, people who came to see Wan Zuocheng and Xiong Gengxiang to borrow the stove to stir-fry vegetables lined up.
Originally, there were only six stoves in the stalls of Wan Zuocheng's family, but now there are 180 people queuing up to stir-fry, which simply cannot meet everyone's needs.
In order to allow more patients' families to cook vegetables, Wan Zuocheng and Xiong Gengxiang discussed and bought more than a dozen sets of stoves and pots and pans at their own expense, and also bought a lot of honeycomb coal.
Seeing the couple's kind deeds, the patient's family members were both touched and apologetic, and they all said: "It is not easy for you, or collect some money, otherwise we are embarrassed to come and borrow the fire." ”
Hearing this, After discussing this, Wan Zuocheng and his wife said to everyone: "Then fry a dish for 5 cents, stew a soup for 1 yuan, enough to buy honeycomb coal and spices." ”
This price has been maintained for many years. It was not until 2016 that the couple adjusted the price because of the rise in raw materials: 1 yuan for stir-fry, 2.5 yuan for stewed soup, and 1 yuan for a bowl of rice.
Although the people who come here to cook are different in age and occupation, they are all linked by the identity of the family members of cancer patients, and even some people are cancer patients themselves.
This "one-dollar kitchen" with thick smoke and fire has made Wan Zuocheng and Xiong Gengxiang and his wife more busy, and also made people who have suffered from illness taste the taste of "home" because they have eaten familiar and favorite meals.
"No matter how difficult it is, you have to eat enough"
Wan Zuocheng has an introverted personality and is easy-going. Xiong Gengxiang is a person with a cheerful personality and a quick talk. The words she often hangs on her lips are: "Even if you encounter great difficulties, you must eat enough!" ”
Wan Zuocheng also once said: "No matter how rich people are, when they come to the cancer hospital, they will become poor." But no matter how poor you are, you still have to eat hot food. We can help a little bit. ”
This "anti-cancer kitchen" is separated from the cancer hospital by a wall. Every day, the patient's family comes out of the hospital, goes to the nearby wet market to buy some meat and vegetables, and then goes here to stir-fry and cook.
A nasopharyngeal cancer patient is the first person to go to the "kitchen" every day, and he has an infusion joint wrapped around his arm and a blue bracelet on his left wrist.
He didn't buy much food each time, sometimes two duck eggs, eight cowpeas, and a piece of meat the size of a third of his palm; sometimes 20 or so edamame, a loofah, and a small piece of meat. After he finished frying, he divided it into two meals at noon and in the evening.
He lived in the countryside and when he was in good health, he used to farm and do a small slaughter business. He was worried that he would be paralyzed in the future, so he took advantage of the fact that he could take care of himself and came to the hospital for rehabilitation treatment. Now because he can't work and has no income, he has to live frugally.
As long as he sees a patient wearing a blue bracelet on his hand, Xiong Gengxiang is extra attentive and always gives the other party more food.
If she saw that the other party did not bring oil, she would also take a small bottle of oil from the house and smile and say, "No money."
After hearing about Wan Zuocheng's "anti-cancer kitchen", Hui Hui, 26, rented a house nearby and came early every morning to cook for her father, who was suffering from lung cancer.
She said to Wan Zuocheng and Xiong Gengxiang: "Dad doesn't like to eat meals in the hospital canteen, he likes to eat the meals made by me and my mother." ”
Hui Hui and her mother cook for her father every day, and in order to take care of her father, she also quit her job at the Guangzhou factory and returned to Jiangxi.
Brother Zou, who is in his forties, also formed a fate with the "anti-cancer kitchen" because of his wife's illness.
Originally, when his wife was in good health, Brother Zou lived a life of "eating to open his mouth", and now that his wife has cervical cancer, he has begun to learn to cook and take care of his wife.
In more than two years of experience, Big Brother Zou has become a "kitchen god". Not only did they learn to cook home-cooked food, but they could also instruct patients how to use the stove and how to make the dishes full of color and flavor.
"I hope she can eat well every day, eat well and feel better, and her condition will improve when she is in a good mood." Hearing Elder Brother Zou say this, Wan Zuocheng and his wife understood very well.
The people who come here to cook come from the north and south of the motherland, and they cook a pot of sweet and bitter spicy, but a bowl and a dish are brought out of the flesh and bones.
The cooks were busy, and Wan Zuocheng and Xiong Gengxiang helped them take care of the fire, serve rice, clean up, and sometimes talk to them.
A girl in her 20s heard the story of the "anti-cancer kitchen" and specifically found it here, she said to Wan Zuocheng and his wife: "My mother left in her fifties, and I was sorry that there was no such a fire, and I could cook for her like at home." Now I know that there is such a good place! ”
Hearing these words, Wan Zuocheng and his wife strengthened their determination to run the "anti-cancer kitchen".
They often say to the patient's family: "There is food to eat is home, and the patient must eat the meal made by his own relatives." ”
What is borrowed is not fire, but hope
This small kitchen, without the taste of mountains and seafood, can not cure cancer patients, but pinned on the hope of a family for their loved ones.
Mr. and Mrs. Wan Zuocheng empathize with the experiences of the patient's family. More than 20 years ago, Wan's father also died of lung cancer.
In the two years of illness, my father could not eat anything at all, and was so thin that only the skin and bones were left, and he could only rely on anesthetics to relieve the pain.
Wan Zuocheng said that he and his wife are only physically tired, "They can't die if they want to die, and to live is to suffer." ”
It is because of the same experience that Wan Zuocheng and Xiong Gengxiang know how to comfort and exonerate the patient's family. Even the doctors at the cancer hospital recommended to the patients: "You can go to the kitchen next door to find Sister Xiong." ”
The patients and their families here are very dependent on them, relying on the "kitchen", and over time, Wan Zuocheng and his wife have become relatives with many patients.
One mother and son both had cancer, the 15-year-old son had bone cancer and had one leg amputated, and the mother had cervical cancer. When her mother came to this "kitchen" to cook, Xiong Gengxiang always advised them to "want to open up a little and live every day happily."
Later, the mother and son returned home after their condition stabilized, and the mother often sent WeChat videos to Xiong Gengxiang, which were all pictures of her dancing happily every day. "Watching them happy, I'm happy too." Xiong Gengxiang said.
After a woman's husband had been treated for some time, the doctor advised them to go home and recuperate, saying that there was no need for treatment. Before leaving, she came to the "kitchen" and said that she wanted to take a picture with the hostess, and she was reluctant to bear Gengxiang.
Two months later, the woman's husband died, and Xiong Gengxiang transferred 200 yuan to her after she knew about it, so that she could mourn and have time to play.
Cancer, a chronic disease, sometimes makes people lose the confidence to live, and it can also make people rush to the hospital.
There was a patient in his 30s who heard that cobblestone boiling water can fight cancer, so he bought a pebble boiled water to drink. When Xiong Gengxiang saw it, he angrily stopped him and enlightened him to face reality and live strongly.
For most families, when they go to a cancer hospital, they not only have to face financial pressures, but also face the fear of death.
Maybe the last time this person was still cooking in the "kitchen", the next time we met, it was the urn photo sent by the family. Here, Lao Wan and his wife saw too many things that their relatives were separated by yin and yang, and they did not want to live.
"The patient who signs up here will face death, but he always has to eat when he is alive, we can help it, and if we can't help, let the patient eat better."
The simple words let people see the kindness and sense of responsibility in the hearts of the couple.
In the past 18 years, Mr. and Mrs. Wan Zuocheng have also become half of the anti-cancer diet experts. What to eat and what foods to eat is helpful to the patient's condition, and they often use the accumulated "big data" to provide advice for the families of later patients.
Over the years, many patients and their families have become friends with Lao Wan and his wife. When they left, they would come and say goodbye to the couple.
The wall, which was dimly yellowed by the fireworks, had left a dense wall full of telephone numbers, becoming a testimony of the couple's good deeds.
After the treatment of a female patient, before leaving, she grabbed Xiong Gengxiang's hand and said emotionally while crying: "Thank you big sister!" You guys are good people! You will live a long life, and only those of us who suffer will have a place to cook. ”
Wan Zuocheng said: "They can't do without us, and we can't do without them." As long as we see them come here every day to stir-fry and cook a meal, we know they are still alive. ”
In the eyes of many patients, what they borrowed from Lao Wan and his wife was not fire, but hope.
Because of this kitchen of several square meters, the hospital that seems to be full of sorrow has become no longer low and cold, but soft and warm.
"When the stove burns, the fire cannot be extinguished"
Every time I saw the patient's family come here to stir-fry and cook, the old wan couple was greeted with a smile, and Xiong Gengxiang affectionately called them "my patients".
After doing good things for so many years, Wan Zuocheng and Xiong Gengxiang have long been famous, open Baidu's "one yuan kitchen", you can search for countless related terms.
In February 2018, Lao Wan and his wife were listed on the "China Good People List"; in November 2020, they were named the "Second National Civilized Family"; in February this year, they were again named "Moving China 2020 Annual People".
With so many honors, the popularity of The Old Wan couple has greatly increased.
Once, the staff of CCTV learned about the deeds of the "anti-cancer kitchen" and called The Old Wan couple and invited them to beijing to do a program.
As a result, Xiong Gengxiang said anxiously on the phone: "Thank you!" My patients wanted to make food, I couldn't go away, and hundreds of people followed me every day, taking ten thousand for me. ”
Because they could not put down the anti-cancer kitchen, they also had to give up going to the "Moving China" award ceremony to receive the award.
In May this year, Nanchang held the "Top Ten Most Beautiful Hometown People" award ceremony, and Wan Zuocheng and his wife won the award with high votes and were specially invited to attend.
The Nanchang Evening News reporter made an appointment with them in advance, and they decided to squeeze out three hours round trip. You know, these three hours, but the old Wan couple usually leave the "kitchen" the longest time.
In order to participate in this ceremony, The old Wan couple got up at two o'clock in the morning, prepared everything needed in the "kitchen" in advance, and handed over the work to their daughter.
That day in the car, Lao Wan was napping to make up for sleep, and Xiong Gengxiang was with his daughter WeChat video, explaining the details of the work one by one, "We left and did not worry about it!" ”
Don't look at the old Wan couple helping the patients to make food every day, they themselves are casually fooling around with their own meals.
Every day at noon, they wait until the last person to stir-fry leaves the "kitchen" before they can sit down and prepare their own lunch. Usually half a cabbage, a few slices of meat, a small melon sent by someone else, even if it is a meal.
"There is no moment without people here, we are like going to jail, year after year, time has passed." Xiong Gengxiang, whose back was already wet with sweat, muttered.
In fact, the family of The Old Wan couple is quite good. In the 1980s, Wan Zuocheng taught himself the craft of drilling water pressure wells and became the first ten thousand yuan household in the village.
In 2003, the couple used their savings from business to buy a two-bedroom and one-room apartment of more than 70 square meters in the community next to the Provincial Cancer Hospital. However, they have hardly ever lived there, but they often let the patient's family members go to live.
When they meet people with good conditions, if they give some accommodation fees, they will accept it first, but they can transfer it and donate it to the family in need. If you see that the other party's conditions are not good, you will directly get free.
Their three children have all started a family, and the old couple has no worries. The unexpected opening of the "kitchen" made the couple's life suddenly become hectic, and even could not stop at all.
Since opening the "one dollar kitchen" in 2003, they have been up at two or three o'clock in the morning every day, frying thousands of fritters, and then busy from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. After that, I cleaned up all the kitchen waste and countless pots and pans, and I could only sleep three or four hours a day.
Even Chinese New Year's Eve night, they hurried to the child's house for a meal and rushed back immediately. They were worried that if a patient's family came, they would not be able to put out the fire.
It wasn't until 2019, when the government funded the "kitchen" and helped them pay two floors of rent, that they stopped the fritter business.
In the past two years, more and more caring enterprises have sent kitchen utensils, ingredients, electrical appliances and other materials. Many people came and donated money to Wan Zuocheng and his wife. But Lao Wan pointed to the families of the patients and said, "Give them the money, they need the money even more." ”
Now the old Wan couple is getting older and older, and their bodies are beginning to decline. Every weekend, my daughter came to the "kitchen" to help, and often saw her parents snoozing against the door, looking tired.
The daughter was very distressed, and once advised her parents to close the "kitchen" and let them go out on a trip to enjoy their old age.
However, seeing that everyone trusts themselves so much and needs themselves so much, Lao Wan and his wife simply can't let go of "my patients".
Love can be contagious and passed on, and now when my daughter comes to help on weekends, she will also donate money to patients.
Someone asked Wan Zuocheng how long to work? He replied, "I'm going to hold out until I fall, until I can't do anything, as long as I have the strength, I'll help them."
Lei Feng said: It is not difficult for a person to do a good thing, but it is difficult to do a good deed for a lifetime.
With their kindness and love, Wan Zuocheng and his wife insisted on doing good things for 18 years, accompanied countless people through the most difficult part of their lives, and became a beautiful and warm harbor in their memories.
"When the furnace burns, the fire cannot be extinguished." This is the belief of Mr. and Mrs. Wan Zuocheng, and it also gives the patient hope of survival.
. END .
【Wen | Yiren】
Edit | Daniel Lee]
【Typography | Drizzle】
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