From the time I became a soldier, I experienced my mother's thoughts and concerns

Mother's concern

■Chang Shuhui

Many people may have had such an experience: when they are around their mothers, they are accustomed to the care and care of their mothers; when they are not around their mothers, they slowly realize their mother's thoughts and concerns. My experience began when I was a soldier.

In the late autumn and early winter of 1985, I was conscripted into the army and came to Shangchuan Island in Guangdong. After we took a boat to the island, we settled in a cave and began a hundred days of recruit enlistment training. After going to the island, like other comrades-in-arms, I quickly sent the first family letter to my parents to report safety. At that time, on Kamikawa Island, the transportation and communication conditions were very backward.

For some reason, more than 20 days later, the families of the comrades who joined the army with me received letters from the family who reported safety, but my parents did not receive my letters. The mother of the child is worried. I was my mother's "oldest child" and had never left my hometown before joining the army. My mother was worried day and night, and she couldn't eat well and couldn't sleep. At first, she would walk to the brigade headquarters every day and ask if there were any letters from me. After running like this for seven or eight days, I still didn't see the letter coming, so my mother began to run directly to the township post and telecommunications office.

From the village to the township, you have to cross a kilometer of river ditch depressions and walk two kilometers of rural dirt roads. My mother ran like this for another week, still didn't hear anything from me, and she couldn't hold on any longer. In the township post and telecommunications office, my mother burst into tears. While crying, she found Zhang Guan of the Township People's Armed Forces Department, half pleading and half reproaching, and said, "Where did you pull my children?" It won't be lost on the way..." Back at home, the mother began to blame her father loudly again. My father could not sit still, and ran to 4 villages in one go, found the parents of several comrades who had joined the army at the same time, and asked them to write to their sons to inquire about my situation. More than 40 days later, I learned of this situation, immediately took a leave of absence, ran two kilometers of island mountain road, and went to the island post and telecommunications office to take a telegram to my parents. Receiving the telegram "Safe to the team, please do not read", the mother was relieved.

Listening to my sister, in the first two years of my military service, my mother often sat alone in the ground and secretly wiped away tears because she missed and worried about me. During the Spring Festival of the first year after I left as a soldier, a nephew from the same village who was a soldier in Beijing went home to visit his relatives and went to his home to pay homage to his mother. When my mother saw this nephew in military uniform, she hugged him and cried loudly, and while crying, she said, "I miss my son..."

Later, program-controlled telephones were installed on the island. I made a pact with my mother that every Saturday night after the newscast, I could call my mother. On Saturdays, my mother would have dinner early and trotted all the way to a commissary in Jinantou to wait for my call. Every time the phone rings, the voice of mother's love will be heard on the other end of the phone. As soon as she heard my voice, my mother would laugh happily. Every time I talk on the phone, she will ask me about food, clothing, shelter and transportation according to the "procedure", and at the end, it is mostly ding-dong "The sea is humid, and I have to cover the quilt at night... Don't look into the sea when you're on a mission at sea." If I "defaulted" on a temporary assignment, my mother would wait at the telephone for an extra half an hour before leaving.

The mother was like this, loving and caring for her children with all her heart, and extending this care to her grandchildren. In 2000, I was transferred to the Guangzhou Military Organs. After the birth of her daughter, her mother was relieved and insisted on coming to Guangzhou to see. On that occasion, my mother stayed in Guangzhou for two months, and when she saw that I was working hard and was able to take good care of my wife and daughter, I was relieved to go back. This was the first time my mother had come to see me in the army, and the last time she had come to see me. When the plane landed in Zhengzhou, my mother called and said emotionally: "This time I went to Guangzhou, and I was relieved to see that you were all very good... As long as you can work well for the country in the army and take good care of your wife and children, you will not come back when I die..."

Unexpectedly, my mother said a word. When my mother left, I really couldn't go back because of work. By the time I hurried back to my hometown, my mother had already left me for a day.

Over the years, as I have grown older, I have deeply experienced the love and concern of parents for their children, and I have also deeply felt the selflessness and greatness of maternal love. Especially during the Chinese New Year's Holidays, I miss my mother very much. I often sat alone in front of the window, looking at the blue sky, and wondered - do I think my mother is okay in another world? Is she still worried about me as much as she was then? I also want to live a prosperous life now, if my mother is here, I can invite my mother to a meal and have a long conversation all night... Thinking like this, I woke up suddenly and realized that my mother had left me for a long time. I will never see my mother again in this life!

Although I could not see my mother, her love was always with me, and her words to me always inspired me. I think this is the mother who loves and cares for me in another way.

(This article was published in the 12th edition of the "People's Liberation Army Daily" on November 29, 2021, with slight deletions)

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