In Huomiao Village, Yangzi Town, Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province, a centenarian often stands in front of a clump of mountain gardenias under the poplar tree in front of his house, looking into the distance, revealing a kind and tranquil look.
But if you look closely, you can feel a trace of melancholy hidden inside.
Her white hair was neatly combed, and her thin face was covered with deep wrinkles, but from time to time a smile appeared at the corners of her mouth, looking at her from a distance, and blending with the pure white gardenia, which made people feel deeply.
This old man is Chen Xiuying, who is well-known in the local area.
The flower language of gardenia is eternal and strong love, and it also symbolizes a lifetime of waiting, and this centenarian's life is like a gardenia, she guards her child's life with strong and eternal love.
If she was just an ordinary centenarian, everyone might be surprised at most that this old man was in good health!
But Chen Xiuying is different, she is not only a centenarian, but also a mother who still guards three "monkey babies" at the age of 100.
Other old people are recuperating at her age, but Chen Xiuying is still very busy every day. For her, her life is like a test given to her by God, testing whether she is a good person.
As long as she doesn't get sick, Chen Xiuying thinks that God is taking care of her, and wants her to live well and take her three "monkey babies" well, and it is precisely because her body can still hold on to it, so she has always been strong to protect her children.
Chen Xiuying, born in Hubei on August 22, 1917, was very handsome and lovely when she was young, and her appearance was also able to rank among the top in the village.
Because she lives in a small mountain village and was born in an ordinary family, her family does not have any education level, and this also laid the groundwork for the bumpy second half of her life.
Q As we all know, the marriage of close relatives will have a very serious impact on the next generation, of course, there will be some lucky individuals, but the possibility of this is very small.
Most men and women who marry close relatives generally give birth to children with various problems, and some children even die before they are born.
Among the seven children who survived, the second Chen puppy, the fifth Chen goat milk (female) and the eighth Chen Xiaohuan (female) have very small heads, very large ears, and particularly slender limbs, and they can't speak when they grow up, and they are used to Xi walking upside down, holding their hands high to block the sun, looking very much like monkeys, so they are called "monkey babies" by the villagers.
At that time, Chen Xiuying and her husband took the child to the hospital for examination, and the doctor directly explained that it was the reason for the marriage of close relatives, and told them that the child's mental retardation and physical disability are lifelong things.
Q: This also means that their children will not be able to live the same life as ordinary people for the rest of their lives.
After learning about this incident, Chen Xiuying's heart was broken, and she had no way to accept this fact for a while.
At that time, many friends in the village persuaded them to throw away their children or give them to others, but Chen Xiuying did not give up her children in the end.
After discussing with her husband, she decided to keep the child by her side to raise, even if she had to bear greater responsibilities than other ordinary parents, they also recognized it, the big deal is that it is harder, and the child comes to this world to meet herself, that is fate.
For the sake of children, no matter how hard it is to be a parent, it is worth it.
In order to raise their children, the husband and wife worked very hard, although life was a little harder, but fortunately, the family was around, so life was quite passable.
But as the days passed, the husband worked day and night for decades, and finally lost his physical strength and died of illness in 2001.
Chen Xiuying's world has become dark again, and from then on, the only person who can support the family is herself - the four healthy children are all married, they also have their own families and jobs, and they really can't help their mother.
In fact, the children also proposed to take their mother to their side to take turns to support them, but no one had an idea what to do with the three "monkey babies", and Chen Xiuying, who was strong, finally decided to stay in the countryside and guard her children.
In this way, the heavy responsibility of raising three children was pressed on Chen Xiuying.
Q In order to take care of these three children, Chen Xiuying gets up early every day, day after day, year after year, more than 50 years have passed, she has basically never left the village, and waits by her children's side every day.
Chen Xiuying's seventh daughter, Chen Shifang, said that her mother used to wash the clothes for the three children every day, sometimes two or three times a day, because they often accidentally urinated on their bodies.
Fortunately, after 2015, a washing machine was bought, and the elderly no longer had to wash clothes by hand.
But cooking still has to be done. To this day, Chen Xiuying still has to get up early every day to prepare meals, these children have a relatively large appetite, according to the cadres of the local civil affairs department, Chen Xiuying and her three children can eat five or six catties of rice a day.
Among the three "monkey babies", the IQ of the fifth Chen goat milk is relatively high, and he can understand some simple words of Chen Xiuying, and the eighth Chen Xiaohuan is blind and needs to be taken care of by his mother.
For decades, the three children have never called their mother, Chen Xiuying wants to say that she has no regrets, it is impossible, but she has never complained and has been suffering silently.
Although the children are growing up every day, they are still unable to take care of themselves when they are in their sixties and seventies, Chen Xiuying is very worried that she is getting older and older, and if she dies one day in the future, what will her children do?
Every day, when she thinks about this problem, she is very worried, and she can't let go of her children.
Although Chen Xiuying's three children are all disabled, they are very simple and active, which makes people can't help but associate them with the word beauty.
Although these monkey babies are still mentally incomplete when they grow up, whenever someone sees them, they always look at the visitors with a smile, and then cry happily, like a group of children who are always carefree.
Although the children don't understand many things, they are very dependent on Chen Xiuying, and when the children have something delicious, they will happily jump in front of their mother and hand the delicious food to their mother, and every time Chen Xiuying will be moved to tears.
Although the children don't understand anything, and their limbs can't be coordinated, Chen Xiuying has not given up educating her children.
She will teach them to eat with chopsticks when eating, and many small details of life will also be taught to them, of course, maybe the next time the children will not be taught after teaching, but Chen Xiuying always takes the trouble to teach them repeatedly.
Chen Xiuying's heart should feel sorry for her child, after all, the child is so old, not only is he ugly, his limbs are not sound, and he can't even control his urine and urine, and if he doesn't pay attention to it, he will make himself very bad.
When she recalled some things in the past, someone would ask her if she regretted marrying a close relative, Chen Xiuying just said lightly: "Fate is destined, I am here to repay the debt." ”
Everything chooses to go with the flow and live hard, perhaps this is Chen Xiuying's life principle, which is why she has been able to persist for so many years.
Chen Xiuying is unlucky, but she is also lucky, at least, during these years, she herself has never had a very serious illness.
And her children have not had particularly serious diseases, sometimes they will have some minor diseases, but Chen Xiuying can always think of some small home remedies to cure these minor diseases, and even those gardenias at the door of the house have become materials that can be used for medicine.
She always chooses some to soak in water or take it, and gardenias themselves can be used as medicine, so they are beneficial and harmless to their bodies, and Chen Xiuying herself is Xi to using gardenias.
Of course, the bigger reason is that Chen's mother has been carefully accompanied and cared for for many years, and Chen's mother herself has a healthy and long-lived physique, which also lays a solid foundation for her to take good care of her children.
Of course, the reason for Chen Xiuying's longevity is not only because of the water and soil, but also because of her own life Xi habits and diet.
And because she has to take care of the children, her daily routine is very regular, and she does repetitive things at regular intervals every day, and there will be no other chaotic arrangements.
In addition, Chen Xiuying is kind and has a very good personality, in the eyes of the villagers, Chen Xiuying has never cried and made a fuss, even when she knew that the child was deformed, Chen Xiuying was only silently sad, and never showed extreme emotions.
Although she and her children have a long life, but the living conditions are really not very good, when her deeds are known by more and more people, the township staff also came to Chen Xiuying's home to understand the situation, after seeing her poor family situation, the government also began to provide subsidies to everyone in her family every month.
In the 70s of the last century, Zhongxiang civil affairs department gave the "monkey baby" a subsidy of 1 yuan per person per day, a month, a total of 90 yuan, at that time, the average annual income of a farmer was more than 100 yuan, and the government's help to Chen Xiuying's family was not small.
Since the 90s, the monthly assistance for the whole family has been raised to 170 yuan, and after 1999, it has been included in the subsistence allowance, and the amount has been continuously increased with the development of society.
In 2009, the Zhongxiang Civil Affairs Department made a special case and approved Chen Xiuying and three "monkey babies" to enjoy the subsistence allowance at the same time, with a monthly allowance of 920 yuan.
Thinking of the time many years ago, Chen Xiuying still has endless vicissitudes in her eyes.
At that time, everyone's living standards were not good, Chen Xiuying and her wife farmed together to feed the family, in addition to taking care of the children every day, they also had to plant rice and cut rice, and do all the dirty work, only then could they ensure the basic survival expenses of the family.
The villagers also know that her family is more difficult, so they often spontaneously send them rice and vegetables, so even if life is very difficult, life is quite passable.
Later, her wife left, and she had no way to farm anymore, so she handed over the land to her children who could live a normal life to plant, leaving only a small part of the field to plant some vegetables that she usually eats, and the rest of the time was used to wholeheartedly take care of the three "monkey babies" who could not take care of themselves.
In 1998, the government allocated 13,000 yuan for Chen Xiuying's family to build four new brick houses with timber and labor in the village.
After the house was repaired, Chen Xiuying specially asked someone to write on the gable, "The Communist Party is good, socialism is good, thank you for the government's care", and later every time a reporter interviewed, she would take the initiative to point it out to them.
The first thing to solve is the lighting and drinking water problems. In the early years, the infrastructure was very poor, the home was always dim and dark, and it was not very convenient to drink water, so you had to go to the well to fetch water.
Before, there was not even well water, so everyone went to the pond five miles away from the Changshou River to dig water to drink, and the water was still shared by people and animals.
The civil affairs department installed tap water for Chen Xiuying's family, which saved the elderly the trouble of carrying water.
Immediately afterwards, the construction team replaced the wires of Chen Xiuying's house, installed bright light bulbs, replaced the roof tiles, repaired the cement floor in front of the house, and paved a stone road several hundred meters long to her door.
Chen Xiuying pointed to the cement in front of the door and said that Director Zou Zhifu had specially explained not to pave it too smooth, lest the "monkey babies" wrestle.
But maybe she doesn't know it herself, but it is precisely because her selfless maternal love has deeply touched the society that the world's love will come like a spring and warm the family.
There are always volunteers and volunteers who come to help take care of them, and many volunteers will send some local products, medicines or some daily necessities during the Chinese New Year, and some will even stay with them for the Spring Festival, and Yu Zhiqiang, a volunteer from Huangshi City, is one of them.
After Chen Xiuying's wife died, the civil affairs department took into account her old age and frailty, and hired a "nanny" for her in the village with a monthly amount of 400 yuan to help take care of the "monkey baby".
After all, Chen Xiuying is already very old, even if her body looks quite tough, she really needs someone to take care of her to rest assured.
Chen Xiuying's seventh son-in-law, Dong Xinhua, once said very frankly: "It is their blessing for my mother to live one more day." ”
It is precisely because this mother never gave up on them from the beginning, and still remained by their side in the end.
Even if he is very old, even if his body has begun to undergo some changes, he has never had the idea of giving up, how can he be said to be unlucky to get such maternal love?
Chen Xiuying's face always revealed a faint sadness when she looked at the children, she was really worried, if she left like this one day, what would the children do?
She said: "Although I can still move now, my eyes are spent, my ears can't hear clearly, my leg pain is getting worse and worse, and my body is getting worse day by day, maybe I will have to trouble my daughter and son-in-law in the future, if I leave, what will the children do?"
Fortunately, Jingmen City and Zhongxiang City Disabled Persons' Federation both remember this family, and the red vest service team of Yangzi Power Supply Station also formed a pair with Chen Xiuying's family, promising to help them for a long time, which can be regarded as eliminating the worries of the elderly.
Mother's love is ordinary and great, like a spring breeze and drizzle, slowly penetrating people's hearts, like a candle of selfless dedication and self-sacrifice, seemingly ordinary, but persistent and tenacious.
A mother's love for her children is hidden in daily life, but many people don't know how to cherish it, and we are already very lucky when we still have a mother and a healthy body.
Instead of arguing with your parents all day long, it is better to calm down and have a good talk with them and feel their love with your heart.
There are many people in this world who have lost their health at birth, and we are just a little luckier than them, so don't base your happiness on the pain of others, please be kind to those who are unfortunate, and give them the respect and love they deserve.
I sincerely wish Chen Xiuying and her children good health and happiness!
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