The ninety-three-year-old heroine has lived in happiness all her life

Reporter Sun Yuanyuan

The three sisters married three brothers

"Do you speak Ningbo?" Knowing that the reporter's ancestral home was Ninghai, Chen Weiqing, who was sitting in a wheelchair, straightened his back and asked with great interest in Ningbo dialect.

Chen Weiqing is a native of Ningbo and came to Lanxi with his father Chen Jiyu as a child. She comes from a large family of 8 children, the second in line.

"Dad likes me, I'm Miss Two." During the conversation, Chen Weiqing looked like a proud little girl. Chen Jiazu has always been in business, and Chen Jiyu is no exception, operating petroleum products in Lanxi, and the economic strength was very favorable at that time.

When he arrived in Lanxi, Chen Weiqing was transferred to Lanxi County and later entered Jinyi Middle School to study.

In high school, Chen Weiqing met his classmate Tong Pinyan, a classmate of Lanxi. At that time, Lanxi students went to jinyi middle school, and most of them took the water route. The two traveled all the way, studied together, and slowly cultivated feelings.

"What do you like about Tong Pin Yan?" The gray-haired Chen Weiqing raised the corners of his mouth, and his smile became a squint: "He has good grades, he is still a cadre of the school student union, and he is also pretty." ”

"My mother was not bad when she was young, and she was very angry." His 70-year-old son, Tong Zhifeng, interjected. Indeed, "Second Miss" is not a false name. In a group of personal portraits from the 1940s, you can see the style of Chen Wei's youth. In the old photos, Chen Weiqing was hot with "big waves", wearing a small lapel shirt and a lace sweater, which was indeed foreign. Four photos, she has different postures, some wearing a sun hat, some holding flowers, and some holding a tennis racket, living off a fashionable young man.

Tong Pin Yan's family is the third brother, and he is also the second oldest. After the two married, two young people of similar age moved around frequently. One after the other, Chen Weiqing's two younger sisters came together with Tong Pinyan's older brother and younger brother respectively. In this way, three sisters married three brothers, kissing each other, and there were many happy events.

"It's not the line I'm leading, they're good on their own, it's free love." Mentioning this past, Chen Weiqing recalled endlessly, "Three sisters married three brothers, do you say it's okay?" There was no need to answer the question, it was all in the old lady's happy smile.

Extended family members have lived and eaten together for nearly 30 years

The three sons of the old boy family got married one after another, but did not separate the family, but ate and lived together for nearly 30 years, until Fan Guimei died.

Fan Guimei is the mother of the three brothers of Tong Pin Yan, a native of Tangxi. She is the backbone of this extended family. Soon after Tong Pinyan's marriage, his father died of illness, and Fan Guimei supported a family with her diligence and wisdom.

There are 20 people in this large family, 3 couples have 12 children, and Tong Pinyan's nephew has also lived here since he was a child due to the death of his parents. The children understand the mother's difficulty, never talk back to the mother, the family's eating and drinking Lasa, all listen to Fan Guimei's arrangement.

The eldest son of each small family was brought up by Fan Guimei and slept with her at night. The eldest grandson Tong Zhifeng was deeply impressed: "Grandma got up very early, bought vegetables and cooked rice alone, and was too busy to touch the ground every day. She eats two eggs a night to replenish her strength and drinks a small glass of rice wine. ”

Fan Guimei is very strict with the children, the housework at home is assigned by her, the adults are responsible for working to earn money, the children do housework after school, and take younger brothers and sisters. The housework is rotated by three children in weeks, one group cooks breakfast and washes dishes, one group carries water, and one group is responsible for buying briquettes (balls), buying rice and other chores. Tong Zhifeng remembers that there were two large water tanks in the family, one for cooking and the other for domestic water. "Grandma requires that the water tank must be full every day", carrying water before or after school, picking up the water to the water supply station, and using the water to the Lanjiang River.

For breakfast for 20 people, the firewood for the stove had to be prepared the night before, and it was very hard to get up at 4 a.m. that day and burn it. Older girls are responsible for washing clothes, "in the winter, their hands are immersed in cold water, and they are frostbitten." Tong Zhifeng's sister still feels trembling when she thinks about it. It is also under such requirements that the children are diligent and sensible, and they have practiced the child skills of doing housework.

12 children, each child was born, almost all of them were Fan Guimei serving her daughter-in-law in confinement. 1957 was her busiest year. That year, 3 daughters-in-law gave birth to babies one after another, and she just took care of one, and then another one came immediately. Busy, diligent, without a moment's pause. In Chen Weiqing's family photo album, the only single photo of Fan Guimei is that she is sitting on a small chair to mend her clothes, slightly frowning, and her expression is focused.

In this big family, what is even more rare is that there has never been unhappiness due to money. Fan Guimei has her way. At that time, the family rented the large warehouse of Lanxi Welfare Factory in the current Peace Park and transformed it into a courtyard with a monthly rent of 10 yuan. In the early years, the salaries of the three couples were all handed over to Fan Guimei, who arranged food, lodging and other daily expenses in a unified manner. Later, with the arrival of the children, the number of families varied, and she paid for food on a monthly basis.

"From a young age, our parents taught us to be generous, that the family helped each other and did not calculate the immediate gains and losses; my father liked to learn, and his requirements for us were also very high, and he often educated and encouraged us and our grandchildren to love learning and strive for progress." Tong Zhifeng remembers that his mother took the initiative to sell his former mink coat for his uncle's schooling, and never complained.

It's also interesting about the title. For children, there is no "aunt" and "uncle", both called "uncle" and "aunt", outsiders still have some wonders. The family lived together for nearly 30 years, until 1981, when Fan Guimei died at the age of 78.

You raised me to grow up and I grew old with you

After Fan Guimei's death, the three small families moved out of the courtyard one after another. From "Second Miss" to tong's daughter-in-law, Chen Weiqing had her father's love before and her mother-in-law to take care of her, never did housework, could not cook or wash a single piece of clothing. After establishing the portal on his own, her husband Tong Pinyan took care of all the household chores.

Living to the age of 93, ten fingers do not stain the spring water, which sounds strange. "My mother is very happy, never have to do housework, even the tea in the thermos cup is my father brewed every day to give her, to the university for the elderly class is also my father's pick-up." 」 Tong Zhifeng looked at his mother and combed her white hair with his hand, "She is also very easy to get along with, her temper is gentle, it doesn't matter if we say something heavy or light."

In 2017, Tong Pinyan passed away. The five children discussed how to take care of their mother. The eldest sister and the eldest brother and the mother lived close together, and the two families rushed to the old man's residence once every other week, from Monday to Thursday. The second brother lives in Jinhua city, it is slightly inconvenient to go back and forth, and he comes to Lanxi every Friday. On weekends, he is cared for by his two younger sisters, who have not yet retired.

Children over half a hundred years old take care of their elderly mothers without ambiguity, laundry, cooking, feeding medicine are necessary every day, and accompany their mothers to the park for a walk when the weather is good. At night, I brought my own futon to sleep in the next room. The children installed a wireless ringer on Chen Weiqing's bed, and when they pressed it, a loud bell would ring at the end of the bed in the next room. "If there is an emergency at night, we can hear it at any time."

Tong Zhifeng likes to travel, and every summer, there are always old friends who gather him to spend the summer in various places. He went happily, "just one request, to bring your parents." In the family photo album, there are many group photos of the two elderly people traveling around the world, snuggling up to each other and smiling kindly. After the death of his father, Tong Zhifeng took his mother out to escape the summer, and for two months a year, the thunder could not move.

In the summer of 2021, Chen Weiqing suddenly suffered a cerebral infarction, and after treatment, his life was saved, but his left arm could not move and he needed to use a wheelchair. The child is more carefully cared for, helping the mother to go to the toilet and wiping her body. Nowadays, Chen Weiqing takes 7 kinds of medicines every day, and everyone keeps in mind the time and quantity of medication. They also made a mother's blood pressure and blood glucose record book, recording blood pressure and blood sugar values before and after meals every morning and evening.

Every weekend, the young daughter and the young son-in-law would report on time, one responsible for cooking, and the other chatting with the old lady. The second son, Tong Zhixin, was not very good at cooking before, in order to take care of his mother, he deliberately practiced cooking, cutting the dishes thin and fine, so that the mother who had lost her teeth could chew and digest.

"Is this dish delicious?"

"Delicious. I used to love to eat sugar, tooth loss, dentures are not good, eat with gums have a taste. ”

"Who cooks the best dish?"

"Eight immortals cross the sea, each showing their own magic." Chen Weiqing thought about it and said slowly.

Chen Weiqing also loves to read newspapers and read news headlines aloud. "Now she can't read the content, my mom is a title party." Tong Zhixin teased. Chen Weiqing is not annoyed, for many years, she has her own attitude towards the world: "Home and everything is happy." ”

"One, two, three, up." After the meal, the old lady stood up on crutches to exercise, tapped her arms, moved her legs, and encouraged herself in her mouth. The old lady once told her children that she would live to be 128 years old. The children are gone, what to do? "Then I'll live in a nursing home." There is a slight playfulness in the indifferent tone.

70 years have passed, in the story of the three sisters marrying the three brothers, the old people have passed away one after another, and Chen Weiqing and her sister are still alive. These three pairs of elderly people have a total of 34 children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and most of their children live a comfortable life in Lanxi. As the grandchildren go to Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities to study and work, the story of this big family continues in more places...

【Source: Jinhua Daily】