Zhang Ailing's family is prominent, her grandfather is Zhang Peilun, a famous minister at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and her grandmother Li Juling is the daughter of Li Hongzhang, a major minister of the imperial court.
Although her father Zhang Tingzhong's generation had fallen, but the skinny camel was bigger than the horse, the Zhang family's life was still OK.
Zhang Ailing is definitely a talented woman, she wrote novels at the age of 7, began to learn piano, English, etc. at the age of 8, under the guidance of her father, began to read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West", "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness" and other classical Chinese masterpieces at a young age.
It can be said that Zhang Ailing's childhood experience has laid a solid foundation for her to enter the literary world in the future.
Pictured | Zhang Ailing
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhang Ailing went to Hong Kong in 1952, went to the United States in 1955, settled in the United States, and became a U.S. citizen in 1960.
After settling in the United States, Zhang Ailing is still a penman, not only submitting articles in the United States, but also continuing to write scripts for some institutions in Hong Kong.
Since the death of her second husband, the American playwright LaiYa, in 1967, Zhang Ailing's life in the United States has also begun to become lonely.
In 1972, Zhang Ailing moved to Los Angeles, and since then, she has lived here alone and lived her old age.
In Los Angeles, Zhang Ailing has moved many times, and one of the most important reasons is that she is afraid of cockroaches and ants and other bugs.
She made her last move in July 1991, when her friend Lin Shitong was a guarantor, renting a house near the Rochester apartment at the University of California, Los Angeles, to an Iranian landlord who lived there until her death.
In fact, after moving here, she still wanted to move, because there were these small animals she hated as usual, but in the last part of her life, she really couldn't move.
Relatively speaking, she has lived in the Rochester apartment for more than four years, which is relatively long.
Pictured| Zhang Ailing's later years
In Zhang Ailing's later years, in addition to the bugs that bothered her, there were also diseases that accompanied her throughout her old age.
In her later years, Zhang Ailing can be described as disease-ridden, he suffers from serious skin diseases, toothaches, eye diseases, foot swelling and other diseases, long-term medication, diseases, so that her body immunity is very low, sometimes a cold, have to be treated for more than a month, maintenance and treatment, consuming a lot of her time.
So much so that she complained in a letter to a friend: "I am only enough to serve myself all day long, and chores (sporadic chores) will always increase." ”
In fact, this has a lot to do with Zhang Ailing's usual practice of dieting, she advocates dieting, the result is weak resistance, easy to get sick, this situation has continued, and eventually she has no energy, resulting in less and less writing.
Even writing letters was a heavy burden for her, sometimes a letter had to be written for several days, at that time, except for a very few people, she did not write letters, even Song Qi and his wife, who had a publishing business with her, between 1992 and 1993, there were more than half a year of not receiving her letters, because "all kinds of tasks assigned by doctors plus I really lack of energy, and I have to rest for half a day to do a little." ”
Pictured| Zhang Ailing in 1962
Zhang Ailing was an uninsured person in the United States, and at that time in the United States, there was no insurance, and the hospital refused to apply for hospitalization.
One day in the spring of 1989, 69-year-old Zhang Ailing was knocked to the ground by an oncoming young man from Central and South America while crossing the street, and the impact was too violent, causing her to fall to her right shoulder bone.
She went to the doctor, and the hospital refused to hospitalize her because she did not buy insurance, so she wrote to her friend Lin Shitong and said: "I think that for people like me who earn monthly, the medical expenses are still payable, but now the hospital here often does not accept uninsured patients, so I am ready to take a short-term hospital blue Shield (insurance). ”
Although Zhang Ailing had a relatively stable royalty income at that time, she spent more than she earned, and in this case, she did not dare to spend money at will.
As she grew older and her health deteriorated, Zhang Ailing began to think about what was behind her.
In fact, as early as 1985, when she was 65 years old, an incident occurred that made her consider the issue of wills.
That night, she went out afraid that it would be too late to go back, so she walked a few streets quickly, and she suddenly felt a little pain in her heart, and she thought that it might be a heart attack, and she thought about what to do if she fell on the street, so she thought about making a will.
In fact, there is another reason for considering the will, that is, Zhang Ailing is unwilling to confiscate her own property after death, so she has also asked about the relevant matters of notarization of the will, first, the procedures are quite troublesome, and second, her citizen ID card is lost, so she has not been able to handle it.
One day, in order to set up a domestic copyright agent for her uncle Li Kaidi in Shanghai, she wanted to buy a power of attorney form, but she accidentally saw the will form and bought one by the way.
She also learned that with a citizen identity card, it is not difficult to notarize a will, so she went to the notary office and filled out the form, the will is as follows:
I, EILEEN CHANG REYHER, settled in Condominium 206 (90024), 10911 R0CESTER Street, Los Angeles, California, declare that this will is my last will and testament and cancel any other wills I made prior to that:
First, at the time of my death, I bequeathed all my movable property to STEPHEN C. & MAE SOONG (MR.& MRS. STEPHEN C. SOONG) (Mr. and Mrs. Song Qi - This author's note).
Second, I want to be cremated immediately, not in the funeral parlor, and scatter the ashes in any deserted place, all over the land.
Third, I appoint MR.STONE LIN as the executor of this will.
The notary confirms that:
"Eileen CHANG REYHER was in good mental health when signing the will and was not forced and was not subject to threats, fraud and undue influence from anyone."
After that, the will was signed.
After signing this will, she wrote a letter to Lin Shitong, attached a photocopy of the will, said this matter, Lin Shitong also thought that she had some incurable disease, called her, she said that she was still in good health, just in case.
Tu | Zhang Ailing's will to Lin Shitong
The will signed on the 24th, on the 25th, she sent the original to Song Qi and his wife, and at the same time wrote the following instructions:
In order to entrust KD (i.e., Zhang Ailing's uncle Li Kaidi) mainland copyright, I went to the stationery store to buy a power of attorney form. I bought a will form by the way, and if I can notarize it, I don't have to find a lawyer. In the past, I could not make a will because I did not have a document, and I had money left to be confiscated. Modern medical care is too expensive, if you are sick for a long time, the medical expenses are a bottomless pit, and there is money left, I think:
(1) Used in my works, such as please master translation, unpublished publications, such as an English article for Lin Biao, although it has long been a day. ("Little Reunion" novel to be destroyed) I did not think about these things, and I will talk about them later.
(ii) Buy something for both of you to take a souvenir.
Even if there is more money left, I don't want to set up a foundation as a souvenir. ......
Over the years, Zhang Ailing's royalty income has been about $300,000, which is stored in Hong Kong and financed by Song Qi and his wife.
Why did Zhang Ailing designate Song Qi and his wife as heirs to the will?
This is because she has no children in her life, her parents and aunt have passed away, and she and her brother Zhang Zijing have been at odds, and the two are like strangers.
She originally wanted to designate the heir as her uncle Li Kaidi, because she had been Zhang Ailing's guardian when she was studying in Hong Kong, and she was kind to her, plus Li Kaidi married her aunt in her later years, and she was very fond of each other, but he was too troublesome to handle the formalities in the mainland, and finally he was busy for a long time and did not complete it, so he had to give up.
As for Song Qi and his wife, they have been her close friends for decades, and later they represented her in publishing affairs, and they know the most about her works and copyrights, and they are also the most trustworthy and entrusted, and it is logical to be designated as the heirs of their inheritance.
After receiving the will sent by Zhang Ailing, Song Qi and his wife were deeply touched by her trust beyond the flesh and bones, and they were very emotional about it.
Picture | Song Qi and Kwong Wenmei
Due to skin diseases, Zhang Ailing was very afraid of insects, and became more serious in her later years, even to the point of hallucinations.
On July 25, 1995, less than two months before her death, the situation described in her letter to Mr. and Mrs. Song Qi had reached a frightening point:
The previous letter said that the skin disease is getting worse, the medicine has been failing for a long time, and only the fluorescent lamp has some potency. I was really helpless to remember, I suggested trying it. The doctor did not approve of it, and only said, "It is useful to take care of it every day." ”
Every day to tanning salon (sunbathing shop) is very tired, to walk, but only this one is high-grade clean, the other bus directly, there are fleas (fleas), take one back, scared to go out overnight to throw away clothes, dare not use the garbage can in the garage, go out on the street corner of the big paper basket suddenly disappeared, even walk a few streets, the big wire basket is all missing, do not know whether to collect to clean.
I had to throw it on a horizontal street illegally, and went back to worry about it for several days, not sure if there were any fleas eggs left. Tanning salon (tanning shop) cold weather, strong wind blowing, cold and sick.
Decided to buy a fluorescent lamp for home. Now banned, unless equipped with a timer, installed and too expensive no one buys, $600 has no market, the old is afraid of fleas eggs, but even the old ones are not.
It was so easy to find a small company in the suburbs that was available for sale, half price, and was sent to the wrong address for a few weeks.
The last time I wrote that I needed to irradiate for thirteen hours a day, in fact, it was twenty-three hours, because at most half an hour I had to stop and wipe off the worms that had burrowed into my eyes, I couldn't wipe it off and I had to rinse it under the faucet, and I had to reapply the face medicine when it was flushed off.
One day I fell asleep without doing the full set of work, and woke up with one eye so red and swollen that I could hardly open it. Rinse off the contents and gradually reduce the swelling.
Another day to pick up the letter, the back of the pouch is too heavy, the shoulder is worn a little skin, like a shark saw blood like flying over and spreading, surrounded by clusters, for more than a month without closing.
Day by day, watching new flesh grow and bleeding from the hole, I would have cut my hair every few days, and if my hair was slightly longer, the fluorescent lamp would not shine in.
Afraid that the short hair ballast will fall into the wound, ask the doctor not to cut it, the hair grows more into a nest, straight down the forehead, nose, a pustule in a pore, plus a long blood stain.
It is better to irradiate, of course, the dried skin is only worse, but it is a rescue. This doctor "secret disease", only for me to treat sunburn (sunburn), blame me for sunburn, just as invaded the ear to tell me to see the ear, fortunately, the ear has not been filled with pus, but after the continuous invasion, the ear department can not help.
He is the director of the skin department of The Greater, and now he comes out to do it himself, and the business is not good. After clearing the ear wax for me, he said, "I'm glad there's something I can do to help you." (Glad there was a few things I could help with) apparently admitting that there was nothing he could do.
When I was burned out, I only said: "The itch is almost better, the skin is a little itchy"; I thought it was a worm, "It is actually skin flakes, I did not take it under the microscope to see it and did not believe it."
He had agreed that my green tendons were not green tendons, and some of the scars and wrinkles came and went from time to time, which were also the protective color of eczema (eczema). Of course, there are also true and false skin dander.
True skin crumbs can sting like sandflies—dive into eyes with a stab of pain, and the eyes have been bleeding mildly for more than a year.
I finally couldn't bear to change a doctor, Lin Shitong, tested the ulcerated (ulcer attack) on the shoulder, treated it for a few weeks, and at least the face could not see it. ......
The fear of bugs in her later years almost made her insane, for which she moved many times, and in the last few years, she once wanted to leave Los Angeles and live in Phoenix or Las Vegas because she wanted to escape the insect infestation, but after reading the rental advertisement in the newspaper there, she weighed it up and made a rational decision not to go.
Mr. and Mrs. Song Qi persuaded her to go to Hong Kong, but she said that she would prefer to settle in Singapore, but the trip did not make it.
Finally, the last moment of Zhang Ailing's life came.
No one knows what really happened in the last moments of her life, or what she was thinking, maybe she tried to get up and call people, or make a phone call, she installed the phone, just afraid of her own accident, but in the end it didn't work.
As you can imagine, she couldn't move at all, and could only lie there helplessly and desperately until she closed her eyes.
In this way, she quietly lay in her apartment for several days, the apartment manager has not seen her figure these days, so he came to ring the bell of her room, but did not answer, when he opened the door and entered the room, he found that Zhang Ailing had died.
According to the investigation, Zhang Ailing died of arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and the time of death should be three days before the date of detection.
At the time of her death, her room consisted of only a single camp bed, a blue-gray blanket, a folding desk, a television set on the floor, and Chinese and English newspapers and books scattered everywhere.
She knew she was almost at her limit, so she packed her important documents into a handbag and placed them on the folding table.
The executor, Lin Shitong, and his friends handled the aftermath for Zhang Ailing: the body was sent to the Rose Garden Funeral Home for cremation, and the ashes were scattered to the sea on September 30.
Wandering for half a lifetime, all overseas, Zhang Ailing, aged 75.