Text: Han Bo
Figure: From the network
The spring breeze of March blew green the treetops of the willows, and in this most beautiful spring, we sent away my mother-in-law with a pile of loess, and the pain of cancer tormented her for six months, and ten days ago, my mother-in-law calmly walked through her toiling life.
When the wreath in front of the grave made a fluttering sound, I knew that I would never find this person in this world again, her voice and smile would slowly fade from our memories, and every time the daughter-in-law returned to her mother's house, there would be no one to ask for warmth, and she would be ready to eat and drink and wait for us. Thinking about this, my heart hurt like it was being caught.
My mother-in-law is just seventy years old this year, her family is in Zhengji Town, Tongshan District, Xuzhou, and my father-in-law have raised three daughters, one man and four children, plus son-in-law, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, more than a dozen children, they are the same, never favor one over the other. In their eyes, every child is a treasure in the palm of their hand.
In the minds of the neighbors around her, my mother-in-law is a kind-hearted, simple and generous person. In those years, the family's economic conditions were not good, and how to arrange a good life needed to be carefully calculated. In order for a large family to eat and wear warm, the mother-in-law can be said to have worked hard and racked her brains. But the mother-in-law will try to make something delicious and well dressed for the children.
Nevertheless, every time a beggar came to the house, the mother-in-law was not stingy at all, and if there was food and vegetables in the house, she would give it generously to the beggar. In addition, she knows whose family is in difficulty and always helps others as much as she can.
In everyone's eyes, my father-in-law and mother-in-law have always been industrious and can bear hardships, raised bees when they were young, ran around outside, ate and slept in the wind, and later wholesaled fruits, came out early and returned late every day, and did some hard work..... Looking back now, thinking about it, she died at such an age, which also has something to do with the fact that she suffered too much when she was young.
Later, when they were older, their children were married and started a family, their children and grandchildren were full of halls, and they still did not stop working, they found a job as a doorkeeper in the communication room in their relatives' factory, and their mother-in-law always said that they were old, and they did not drag the children's hind legs, so that the children could work well and run their own small homes.
My mother-in-law's illness was discovered relatively late, she was the kind of person who was uncomfortable and hard-to-carry, and as a child, we didn't care enough.
Before the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2021 (September 21), we met to go to the parents-in-law's house to give a festival gift, when the mother-in-law was already emaciated, eating and drinking water is easy to nausea and vomiting, we took the mother-in-law to Xuzhou Central Hospital and the Second Hospital for examination, and finally determined the advanced stage of liver cancer.
After the diagnosis, we all collapsed, my mother-in-law has always been a person who can't be idle, busy, busy, running the housework, getting along with the neighbors, being kind to the children, how can the malignant tumor spread on her body, she has not had a few days of relaxed and comfortable good days. In the following days of treatment, my mother-in-law tried her best to cooperate with the injection and take the medicine, even if it was uncomfortable, she never hummed in front of us.
This year's Spring Festival, we accompanied my mother-in-law to a reunion festival, eating a reunion dinner, taking family portraits, setting off fireworks, although everyone smiled on the surface, behind the scenes of heartache is indescribable.
My mother-in-law's life has entered the countdown, but she is smiling the whole time, presumably not wanting to erase the filial piety of the children and leave everyone with regrets. Now every time I take out this family portrait, watching my mother-in-law endure the pain and face the camera with a smile, I will cry like rain, and the bits and pieces of my previous life will appear in front of me.
From the time of diagnosis to death, it was only half a year.
My most respected mother-in-law, how fortunate to be your son-in-law for more than ten years, you have been relieved of your illness, but what we are left with is a long-term thought.