After 74 years, Tian Fachun finally returned home.
On March 29, he and his wife, Ge Xiuzhen, were placed side by side in a tomb in Beijing's Chaoyang Mausoleum. Before the grave, the daughter-in-law gently instructed: "Dad, mom, I found you a new home today." Dad may not be used to it, it doesn't matter, many relatives are here, in the future, you will chat and drink tea together, and you will gradually get acquainted. Closing the coffin, she cried.
In 1948, 23-year-old Tian Fachun went to Taiwan as a non-commissioned officer in the Air Force and never returned. On March 27, his ashes were packed into the backpack of Liu Dewen, a Douyin search (formerly Toutiao) volunteer, and flew back to Beijing from Taipei.
The 3 hours and 20 minutes flight spanned more than half a century of nostalgia. The son who left his infant is now an ancient old man who is sick in bed. On the day he returned home, only his daughter-in-law and grandson Tian Nianchun stayed at the airport early and sent him the first kneeling bow to his juniors.
This scene, Liu Dewen is too familiar. In the past 20 years, he has escorted the ashes of more than 200 veterans back to his homeland, and at most, he made 29 round-trips between Taiwan and the mainland a year, known as the "soul ferryman." Every time he returned a veteran's ashes to his relatives, he would silently recite in his heart: Please bless me to help more compatriots in Taiwan return home.
After Tian Fachun was buried, Liu Dewen tied red silk to his tombstone
01
"May one day be together, so that the heart will not be cold"
In Tian Fachun's life, he had two opportunities to "correct" his fate.
The first time was in 1948. When receiving the order to go to Taiwan, the superior signaled that he could bring his family with him. At that time, the son Tian Ke was only eight months old, and the wife thought that her husband would return from a business trip in a few days, so he did not go with him. Unexpectedly, Tian Fachun disappeared as soon as he left, and his wife raised her son alone.
Tian Fachun (right) with friends when he was young
In 1981, a letter from the United States was received at his home in Beijing. When I opened it, I saw that it was a family letter sent back by Tian Fachuntuo's friend. After more than 30 years of absence, and learning that they were still alive and had not yet formed a new family, Tian Fachun and his wife began a long correspondence.
Every family letter sent back by Tian Fachun begins with "Xiuzhen my wife", telling about longing and debt. One wrote: "It's not as cold as my hometown, but my heart is cold, and I hope that one day we will meet so that it will not be cold." ”
The second time was in 1987, when the two sides of the strait were open to visiting relatives, and Tian Fachun decided to return to the mainland to reunite with his wife and children. The night before he returned home, he was in a car accident while shopping for souvenirs on the street and died with regret.
That year, Tian Fa Chun's grandson Tian Nianchun was 4 years old, and he knew nothing about the storms his grandfather endured in the big time, only vaguely remembering, "Once it seemed to say who died, and everyone was very sad." ”
When he grew up, Tian Nianchun learned that his name was given by his grandfather, whom he had never met, "I hope I will always read him." ”
Tian Fachun named his grandson "Nian Chun" in his family letter
After work, Tian Nianchun asked friends in Taiwan to help find his grandfather's tombstone, but there was no news.
In October 2020, her grandmother, who had not waited for her husband all her life, passed away. Before dying, she asked her children and grandchildren to scatter her ashes in the small lake in the park next to her home. But after discussing with his father, Tian Nianchun decided to keep his grandmother's ashes first: in case he found his grandfather, he could reunite them underground.
In May 2021, Tian Nianchun came across a news report about Liu Dewen, a volunteer of Toutiao Tracing (now Douyin Search), "Seeing that he has helped so many veterans in Taiwan return to their roots, I feel hopeful." He immediately asked his friends in Taiwan for Liu Dewen's contact information, and quickly got a reply: "Li Chang (Liu Dewen) said that there is no problem, and he will definitely find out your grandfather." ”
02
"The man who carries the ashes"
In Taiwan, Liu Dewen is the chief of Xianghe Li in Zuoying District, Kaohsiung City, the equivalent of the director of the mainland's neighborhood committee, but is not a public official and does not receive a salary.
In Xianghe, many single mainland veterans were placed here. At the age of 17, Liu Dewen moved here with his parents and brother, and after graduating from university, he joined a local bank and volunteered to help the veterans clean up in his spare time. In 2001, Xianghe-ri was re-elected, and he became the chief of Li, and has been re-elected until now.
Liu Dewen called the veterans "uncles." Whenever he had time, he would help his uncles do what he could. In April 2003, a veteran named Wen Kai invited Liu Dewen home for a drink. After the first glass of sorghum wine, Uncle spoke: "Chief Li, is there anything I can ask you?" I'm 87 years old, if I die, can I be carried home and buried in front of my parents' graves? ”
Liu Dewen's heart moved. Every year during the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival, he would see veterans worshiping in the direction of their hometowns, crying like rain. After years of separation, many veterans have long lost contact with their families, and even if they know where their relatives are, they do not want to go back to become a burden to their families, but only hope to return to their hometowns after death. He immediately took Uncle Wen's hand and promised, "No problem. ”
Half a year later, Wen Kai died. In March of the following year, Liu Dewen took his ashes from Hong Kong to Changsha, and then took a bus back to Uncle Wen's hometown of Changde. The Wen family was in the countryside, and the descendants were all working outside, only the elderly sister remained, and Liu Dewen paid for it himself and buried him next to his parents' grave before Qingming.
Since then, more and more veterans have asked him to send his bones home. Liu Dewen couldn't bear to refuse, his eyes were red, his heart was hot, and he blurted out, "Good, good, no problem." In order to fulfill his promise, he often took time off, and later simply quit his job and became a full-time "bearer of ashes".
Held funerals for deceased veterans in Taiwan
Gradually, the reputation of "Liu Lichang" spread from Xianghe to Taiwan, and from Taiwan to the mainland, he began to receive letters from the mainland, asking him to help find the whereabouts of the veterans.
Almost all of the veterans' affairs in Taiwan are handled by friends or volunteers, and the graves are scattered everywhere. And in the early years, Taiwan practiced burial, and many cemeteries fell into disrepair and became barren mountains. In order to find a name that his relatives have been worried about for a lifetime, Liu Dewen traveled to 20 spiritual bone towers, 26 temples, 53 mass graves in Taiwan, and photographed more than 6,000 unworshiped tombstones.
In 2018, Liu Dewen learned that Toutiao had opened a cross-strait family search project, and wanted to use the power of technology to find people more efficiently, so he applied to become a search volunteer. On a daily basis, Liu Dewen will publish the veteran information and work he has on the headline numbers @Toutiao Tracing and @Liu Dewen Li Chang, looking forward to hearing from those who are destined for it. Over the past five years, Liu Dewen has cooperated with the Toutiao Tracing (now Douyin Tracing People) project and has successfully helped more than 110 veterans return to their roots.
Dewen Liu's personal headline homepage
03
"A little more and you're dead"
In May 2021, Tian Nianchun found Liu Dewen and said that the obituary sent back by his fellow villagers mentioned that his grandfather was buried in the "Dingliu Jing Garden" in Zhongfu Township, Chiayi County, but it could not be found on the map, and local friends had not heard of it.
The next day, Liu Dewen drove more than 100 kilometers from Kaohsiung to Chiayi and asked the locals one by one about the Dingliu Jing Garden. Ask young people in their thirties and forties, they have never heard of it; People in their fifties and sixties also shook their heads; I went to the township government to check the information and found nothing, and the staff said that it was probably a private cemetery and was not registered. He had to go home.
But Liu Dewen did not die, sorted out his mood and set off again. Since the young man does not know, look for the old man. After a few trips back and forth, finally, an old man in his eighties gave him the answer he wanted: The cemetery you mentioned is on that hillside.
Liu Dewen followed the direction of his uncle's finger, but found that the weeds on the hillside had grown to a height of one floor, and there was no trace of the cemetery at all. He found a stick, pulled away the weeds and walked inside, and walked for nearly 6 hours until he saw a tombstone, but it was not Tian Fachun's name.
Liu Dewen collects information on veterans in an abandoned cemetery
Back in Kaohsiung, Liu Dewen repeatedly studied the photos of Tian Fachun's funeral, found the funeral company's phone from the ceremonial car and called, which said that the number had changed owners, but fortunately, the new owner happened to know the owner of the funeral company. He called again according to the number given by the man, and finally confirmed: Grandpa Tian's tombstone was on the hillside, and the "Tian Faxiang" engraved on it was actually the name of Tian Fachun's second brother. It turned out that he had not graduated that year, he went to join the army as his brother, and lived in Taiwan all his life in this capacity.
Since then, Liu Dewen has traveled between Kaohsiung and Chiayi, cleaning the cemetery on the hillside and looking for Tian Fachun's tombstone.
It was July, the weather was sweltering, and I was sweating profusely after five minutes into the grass. In the past, Liu Dewen had suffered from heat stroke seven or eight times on the way to find a tombstone, and his wife was worried about him and asked for leave several times to accompany him. Tian Nianchun also advised him: Li Chang, wait until the weather is cold before going, we have been waiting for so many years, there is no hurry at this time. But Liu Dewen refused to give up: I promise you, I will do it.
He had experienced more dangerous situations than that. In 2018, he was looking for the grave of a veteran named Yang Xianggui in the barren mountains, accidentally fell into a deep pit covered with weeds, "only felt pain at that time, climbed up along the long vine", continued to search in the messy grave, and finally found the tombstone in a corner.
On the way down, the pain became more intense, breathing became difficult, he went to the hospital to hang up the emergency room, and when he found that he had broken two ribs and bruised his spleen, the doctor said, "A little more deviated and you will die." ”
The abandoned cemetery is overgrown with weeds
In order to expose the Dingliu Jing Garden as soon as possible, Liu Dewen put on the lawn mower, but the grass was too thick and tough, and the machine could not cut it, so he had to hire four workers to cut a road. On March 27, 2022, ten months after receiving Tian Nianchun's commission, he finally found the tombstone engraved with the words "Tian Faxiang".
After hearing the news from the phone, Tian Nianchun pretended to be calm and told his father sitting on the sofa: Grandpa has found it. The father was stunned for a few seconds, did not speak, did not have any expression, and when Tian Nianchun turned around and walked to the back room, he suddenly heard his father's cry behind him.
Tian Fachun's daughter-in-law cried silently at the burial site
04
"As long as you can carry it, you will always carry it"
Tian Nianchun has always wanted to give Liu Dewen some reward, but they have been refused. Not only that, from the travel expenses to find the ashes, the wages of the lawn mowers, to the various handling fees for the ashes leaving Taiwan, and then to the round-trip air tickets, Liu Dewen has borne it all. And the ticket must be bought in two, the accommodation must be a standard room, "you can't take the elder home as a piece of luggage, that's disrespectful to him." ”
At first, the money came from savings he had saved while working in a bank, and later it was supported by his farming parents. Liu Dewen remembers that when he was a child, his family was very poor, but who needed help in the village, his parents would also contribute money. My father always said, "It doesn't matter if you are poor, your heart cannot be poor." ”
When he grew up, he understood: "If you do more valuable things in your life, you will never be poor." ”
Liu Dewen went to visit surviving veterans in Taiwan before the holidays
Behind this value, there is also a heavy price. After returning to Taiwan after sending the ashes of a veteran back to Taiwan, he learned that his wife had miscarried: because he was not at home, his pregnant wife was holding her four-year-old daughter in one hand and carrying a heavy object in the other, and fell on the stairs.
When his daughter was 6 years old and his son was 4 months old, Liu Dewen decided to quit his high-paying job at the middle level of the bank and serve veterans full-time. This time, his wife, who has always supported him, also thinks he is crazy and files for divorce. The two quarreled for half a year, and then cold war for half a year, and finally Liu Dewen said, you accompany me to send this uncle's ashes to Shandong, and when I come back, I will sign the divorce agreement.
When they arrived in Shandong, the 90-year-old brother of the veteran waited at the entrance of the village, and when he saw them, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed. The old man held his hand and cried bitterly: "Chief Li, you have fulfilled the wishes of our family for generations." Liu Dewen looked back and saw that his wife was also silently shedding tears behind him. On the bus back, his wife said to him, "Go do what you want, I'll raise the children." ”
To his family, Liu Dewen has always been indebted. The day before each departure for the mainland, he would return to the countryside to help his parents with some housework or farm work; When I return to Taiwan, I will bring small gifts to my wife and children.
To his relief, his daughter often came home and said, "Dad, the principal mentioned you again today, saying that what you have done is great, and I am so honored!" When my son first entered junior high school, he took the initiative to help the veterans of the same community clean up.
Over the years, the veterans of Xiangheli have passed away one after another. From more than 3,800 people in the heyday of the 1970s, to more than 1,800 when Liu Dewen was first elected, and now there are only more than 20 left. In the most year, Liu Dewen attended 120 funerals. Among the surviving veterans, the oldest is 102 years old and the youngest is 96 years old. "I hope I can send them all back to my hometown in my lifetime," Mr. Liu said.
However, Liu Dewen is also 57 years old this year, his body is not as tough as before, an urn weighs more than ten pounds, and he carries it on his chest the whole time, and his shoulders and back feel strained. But he said that as long as he could still carry it, he would continue to carry it, and when he couldn't carry it, he would pass this business to his son along with this backpack. ”
The red bag containing ashes was bought by Liu Dewen more than a decade ago, and although there were too many tears behind the reunion, he felt that "it is a happy event to be able to go home."
#After 74 years away from home, veterans' ashes are buried with their wives##头条寻人 #