#精品长文创作季#
(The original name of this number was "Bayiji" and "Bayiji's grassroots", due to the routine inspection of the headline platform, it was found that "Bayiji" is the name of the town where the administrative region is located, which does not meet the platform's personal nickname use specifications, and randomly changed the fashionable lotus leaf Vr, and re-named at the end of the month.) ）
(On the occasion of the 3rd anniversary of my sister-in-law's death, this article is a long article reminiscing about my sister-in-law's life, modified on the basis of the previous one, the full text is 6600 words, and the ad is unlocked, the ad is 15 seconds, if there is an ad, please take a break from your eyes for a while, create tired, read tired eyes, thank you.) ）
When I came back from my hometown, I found that there were more than a dozen packets of hawthorn slices in the pile of fruits that my eldest sister bought for me.
This is a homemade flavor food in my hometown, sweet and sour, rich in vitamins, or old-fashioned packaging, very kind.
This reminded me of my sister-in-law, who had been dead for almost 3 years.
When she died at the age of 66, she was unable to go home for mourning because of the epidemic lockdown, and she felt guilty.
1. The sister-in-law who sells candy balls
The sister-in-law is short and thin, kind and thrifty, submissive all her life, and she does not take advantage of others with a straw stick, like a candle, the flame is weak, and it also burns herself and illuminates her relatives.
When I think of my sister-in-law, my nose is a little sour, and I feel quite guilty.
Among the elders in my hometown, I would sit down with them and chat about family affairs during the New Year's holidays.
Only I didn't have the opportunity to say a few serious and intimate words to my sister-in-law, because she didn't eat at the table, worked when she came to her parents' house, or hurried away when she sent things, and always blindly gave to her mother's family, without self and humility to the dust.
If my sister-in-law is still there, in the wax moon, it is the season for her to sell sugar balls and sweet potatoes along the street.
The colder it is, the better her business is, her hands are frozen into steamed buns, and she stands in the street from morning to night, carrying a candy ball handle, and walks from the south end of the street to the north end of the street.
Our family's genetics are not good, my sister-in-law is afraid that the sugar ball sent to us is too hard, she will bother to make hawthorn slices before the Spring Festival, and send some from house to house, as a special New Year's gift to my mother's family, so that our stomachs are greasy, and we use hawthorn slices to eliminate food.
Father brother and sister 6, aunt and sister-in-law are two ends, 4 middle brothers, counting the second master's family, 11 brothers and sisters in two rooms, sister-in-law is 10 copies, on the way to meet nephews and grandchildren are also busy giving, a basket of hawthorn slices, a child can only be divided into two pockets, not enough to eat.
A couple of cousins and I, who were naughty at the time, were not very polite to my sister-in-law, and thought that my sister-in-law was too stingy - there were too few hawthorn slices.
My sister-in-law was always a little ashamed, "I don't have time to make hawthorn chips, you have time to go to my sister-in-law's house to eat, take care of enough." ”
We complained and didn't dare to let the fourth uncle hear, the fourth uncle had a bad temper, and he felt sorry for his sister-in-law, so he made a gesture to beat us, "Do you know how troublesome it is to make hawthorn chips? Just knowing how to eat, it's too little. ”
Now that I think about it, I was really ignorant at that time.
Seeing that the fourth uncle was going to beat us, my sister-in-law hurriedly eased our cheeks, "My fourth brother, don't beat the children, who made their sister-in-law's family poor." My family is poor, and my nephew doesn't come to the door, for fear that my family will embarrass them. ”
In fact, we don't like to go to my sister-in-law's house, which is located at the north end of the street, not far from our old house, not because my sister-in-law is poor, but because she is too generous and generous.
On several occasions, they slaughtered the chickens, ducks and geese that they raised, entertained us with a smile, and said loudly to the neighbors, "This is my eldest brother's son, those two belong to my second brother's family, and the other one is my third brother's family......"
Several of our cousins, every time they go to my sister-in-law's house together, they are like raiding the house, eating and holding their pockets, so that the second, third, and fourth uncles will yell at us, "Don't go next time, go once, your sister-in-law's family will be poor for three years!"
2. I didn't let the juniors serve a bowl of water
My sister-in-law died on the eighth day of the first month of the year before last, and it was when the epidemic was raging and spreading that movement was restricted in various places.
My sister-in-law had a cerebral infarction, and her recovery after treatment was not good, so she went to the street to sell candy balls.
At that time, there was no one on the street, and she couldn't sell a few bunches a day, so she walked around from morning to dark, thinking that she could make a few cents more by selling a bunch, and she didn't have a penny at home.
When she came back on the night of the sixth day of junior high school, she was groggy and lay down, reluctant to spend money to go to the hospital;
I lay down all night, and when my cousin Qingming found out, it didn't work if I was sent to the hospital.
Due to the needs of epidemic prevention and control, the funeral was simple, and the village notified relatives outside Xuzhou not to go home for the funeral.
I didn't make it back that time, and I kept feeling a dull pain in my heart.
Poor sister-in-law, who has been humble all her life, lives in the dust, has only children in her heart, and always cares about her mother's family, she left in such a hurry, and she has only taken care of and served others all her life, and she has not been served for a day in her later years, even a bowl of water has not been served by her younger generations.
The hard-hearted fourth uncle sighed when he mentioned his sister-in-law, saying that his sister-in-law had lived for others all her life, and she had spent her whole life in vain.
3. The sister-in-law who survived by luck
My sister-in-law is my grandmother's youngest child, and after giving birth to my fourth uncle, my grandmother's body is already very weak.
The sister-in-law who was born in 1956 was born with arms that were not as thick as chopsticks, humming and chirping, crying like mosquitoes, and others said that she couldn't feed her.
At that time, the countryside was poor and there was a famine, and if there was one more mouth, there would be one more mouth.
The patriarchal grandmother was in charge, and when she saw her sister-in-law, who was not much older than a kitten, she looked disdainful and said, "It's not as wide as two fingers, and it's hard to breathe, so hurry up and throw it away, don't let me see it." ”
Grandma was reluctant, and the aunt, who was already a teenager at the time, also protected her, saying that even if the mother and mother ate two less, they should have a puppy and a kitten.
The mother and mother finally left a congenitally deficient sister-in-law, and took turns to take care of it day and night, and finally raised the sister-in-law, and after a few months, the cry was like a baby.
Even so, my sister-in-law has been short and weak since she was a child, she is sick and crooked all day long, she walks and talks late, and her peers don't want to play with her, so she sticks to her grandmother all day long, dragging an oil bottle like an inch.
My sister-in-law knew that her grandmother disliked her, and she didn't dare to enter her grandmother's old house since she was a child, nor did she dare to eat what her grandmother threw over (for fear of being drugged to death).
She listened to her grandmother and aunt since she was a child, and the two of them worked in the yard, giving her a dried white taro and a hawthorn, and she could lean on the corner and lick it for half a day, and she didn't move the place for half a day.
Grandma has been scolding my sister-in-law for being unproductive, like bean sprouts, she will definitely not live much.
But my sister-in-law is like a little grass, with tenacious vitality, and when she grows up one day, she can help her grandmother do something as much as she can.
At that time, her grandmother was in charge of the house, very patriarchal, she ate at the house, and a group of female dependents such as grandmother, aunt, and sister-in-law could not serve the table, and she and several grandchildren ate before the female dependents could eat some leftovers.
Grandma disliked her sister-in-law and gave her the nickname, "King of Sweeping", which means that every time the last one finishes eating, the dishes and leftovers have to be licked and eaten.
The children of the poor family are easy to feed, and the sister-in-law still grew up under the care of her grandparents, although she is short, her personality, appearance, and work are good in all aspects, and she is a good helper for her grandmother, and she also takes care of the nieces and nieces of the big family together.
It can be said that since the sister-in-law was sensible, she has never eaten at home, she is working for the Shi family, her sister-in-law scolds her and complains about her, she never speaks, she gets up early every day, rests late and evenings, and works hard.
4. The life of the in-laws is difficult
My sister-in-law has reached the age of marriage, although she is not tall, but her appearance is still thoughtful, and someone has introduced her to her sister-in-law one after another.
Grandpa's traditional concept is relatively heavy, and he is unwilling to marry his thin and honest sister-in-law into a family with too good conditions, for fear that there will be too many rules, and he will be angry when he marries.
My uncle's family is kind-hearted, and he is a land-sitting household at the north end of the street, and he knows the roots, but the family has been poor for several generations.
Grandpa regretted marrying his sister-in-law, the living conditions of my uncle's family were too poor - my in-laws were sick, two disabled brothers, one was stupid and the other was half-talking, so my uncle was a normal person and very honest.
My uncle was pulling cement in a cement factory in his early years, and he was injured in the waist and couldn't do heavy work, so his personality was a bit of a wretch.
In my aunt's words, after my sister-in-law got married, together with my aunt's family of 6, I couldn't beat a fart with three sticks.
In such a family, the sister-in-law naturally became the main force supporting the family, and she could only get up early and work in the dark in the field and at home, and she did not see the sun at both ends, and soon gave birth to two sons, and the burden was heavier.
In order to increase the family income and find something to do for the two disabled uncles, the sister-in-law learned from others and started a rock sugar gourd (also called sugar balls in her hometown), so that the two uncles sold them along the street, and sometimes the uncle and sister-in-law also sold them on the street.
Several of us children, when we were young, were ignorant, and felt ashamed to do business on the street, and sometimes when we met my sister-in-law, we quickly hid.
My sister-in-law is very sensitive, and she usually loves to cry, and when she saw that we always avoided her, she went to her grandmother to wipe her tears, saying that her nephew looked down on her as a sugar gourd seller.
Grandma comforted her, "Your sisters-in-law told you, I'm afraid that if you stuff sugar gourds for them, it will be easy for you to make some money? A sugar gourd can't make a few dollars, they are all hungry wolves." You don't want to give anyone, it's your family's poverty, and it's so big, who is not better than you?"
The more grandma said this, the more my sister-in-law missed her mother's family.
Whenever there is a little good thing in her family, such as lotus roots, catching hares, raising chickens, and cutting a few catties of mutton, she will also let her cousin send them to our family.
Grandma angrily used a small crutch to push her cousin outward, "A little and a half star of things, one delivery is four, did your mother send it? Tell your mother, let her eat it herself, eat bran vegetables every day, and send some steamed buns to her mother's house, how can you live like this?"
5. The sister-in-law's feelings for her mother's family
Aunt cousin, aunt cousin, broke bones and tendons. My sister-in-law's love for us, our nephews and nieces, is wholehearted.
My father, second and third uncles all worked in the factory, part-time worker and half-farmer;
The fourth uncle is literate and hyphenated, thoughtful, can write, draw, tell fortunes, read the days, and farm.
My sister-in-law lives on farming, family farming, and selling sugar gourds on the street, but she still gives back to her family as much as possible.
At the fair, she would buy some soft and glutinous beef tongue cakes, sugar cakes and the like, and make a detour to her grandmother, but if she didn't eat it, it fell into our mouths;
When her cousin was sick, she hurried to the clinic to replace her aunt and go home for dinner;
Seeing that the farming season was busy, we were in the threshing field to raise rice and ask Qingming to send a large box of sorbet;
When my eldest sister opened a tailor shop and needed help to pick threads and sew buttons, she stayed up late to help;
Sister Ou was afraid of the dark on duty at the grain management office, so she rushed to accompany the night;
When we were in the mouth, we didn't care about our own work, but we had to stay up all night to do it for a few of our uncles, and leave when we were done, without eating.......
When I went to school in 1994, the junior college paid for itself, and my sister-in-law knew about it, so she first gave 50 to the big one, and then secretly stuffed me with 100, saying, "Don't even tell your parents, there are many nephews, don't say that I am biased, your poor aunt will not be easy to do in the future, good." ”
Her kind words and forced intimate gestures touched my tears in an instant.
Seriously, I didn't want my sister-in-law's money, but if I didn't accept it, she cried, saying that I looked down on her poor aunt.
Alas, fifteen nephews and nieces, and more than a dozen on the second master's side, there were so many things in the family in those years, getting married, giving birth to children, getting sick, going to school, building houses.......
My sister-in-law's house is in the street, and if her mother's family has something, she has to come when she knows about it, and she can't come empty-handed.
In this regard, she is far less free and easy than her aunt, and her aunt is good, but her aunt has a big heart.
The eldest aunt once said to the sister-in-law, "Our mother's family has red and white affairs, don't take the initiative to move forward, the people in charge will report the good news and funeral, our sisters act together, do what we can, fifteen children, can you take care of them one by one? You are good, three-inch small feet, running faster than rabbits, nephew and daughter-in-law's in-laws have something to do, you know, and still fart to run, save money between your teeth, how tired you are? I already know, let our eldest (dad) marry you far away, marry far away, out of sight. ”
The aunt said that the sister-in-law has said many times, but it is useless, and the sister-in-law has no money, so she has to save face.
Although these small amounts of money are not much, they can't stand a steady stream.
Her dedication to our mother's family is also an important reason why my sister-in-law's family has been living a difficult life.
In her eyes, there are only others, not herself.
It's a pity, how can the return that my sister-in-law received during her lifetime be one-tenth of what she paid?
Thinking about this, my eyes are full of sadness.
6. The marriage of the eldest son
My sister-in-law's eldest son Qingming is two years younger than me, honest and honest, good looks, after graduating from junior high school, half of the child, on the construction site to do a small job, recognized the master, learned to be a bricklayer, carpenter, electrician, decoration can do some.
He started to work, a person who could top two or three of our cousins, and the fourth uncle was so picky, and they all praised this nephew for his fine work and "passable".
Qingming failed to find a partner several times, mainly because his family was poor and he had no confidence.
One year, during the Spring Festival, I came back from college and brought something to visit my sister-in-law, and I happened to meet Qingming to go out on a blind date.
The clothes he was wearing were too dirty, so I quickly took off my clothes and leather shoes and asked him to change them.
Qingming clumsily put on my clothes and leather shoes, and the blind date was successful.
(The first few times, he came back from the construction site, and he saw him directly, and the girls thought he was too perfunctory, and his clothes were spotted.) This kid is too honest and has a stupid mouth. ）
My sister-in-law often said to Qingming, "It's not your brother's clothes and shoes, you can't find your partner, you are married, thanks to your eldest brother." ”
When my cousin got married, the fourth uncle asked us to save face for my sister-in-law, and not be stingy with the sound and songs, so that the sister-in-law who had worked hard for half her life and loved us for half her life was happy.
We have so many cousins, of course, it is better to be respectful than to obey our orders, one person lights a cannon, and it can ring for a long time, and that is also a rare time when we repay our sister-in-law.
That day was also the happiest day for my sister-in-law, everyone was drunk and messed up with her face. We never knew my sister-in-law was so good at drinking.
The next day, my sister-in-law remembered the money that our nephews had given our cousin Qingming to light the ring and the song, and took the cash to pay us back.
The sister-in-law was very embarrassed with the money.
Qingming's cousin gave birth to three children after marriage, all of whom were brought up by his sister-in-law, and the family's living conditions were general, and they all relied on Qingming to work outside alone, and now the eldest daughter graduated from junior high school and also went south to work.
7. The younger son is not worried
The sister-in-law was most concerned about her youngest son Qingfeng in her later years.
Qingfeng has not been worrying since he was a child, ugly and wonderful, also strange, lazy and lazy, easy and tired, his mouth is still slippery, there is no right word, and he is still seven dissatisfied, eight are not angry, and he never meets every day.
In the past, when he was at home, he could sleep until three o'clock in the morning, and there was no food or vegetables at home, so he didn't care about 3721, scooped a few spoonfuls of grain and went to the street to change pancakes and fritters, and then ate a round belly first;
The work in the field, Qingfeng never does it, he said that he is not a farmer, a good man does not make a lot of money, he is born to do great things.
Selling sugar balls on the street, he didn't go, the hawthorn slices made by his sister-in-law were tight, they were tight, they were eating slick, and he complained that his parents were honest and didn't give him a family inheritance, so he would sell sugar balls and make hawthorn slices.
Qingfeng should be 43 years old this year, and he has been lying flat in major cities for many years, preferring to boil noodles in white water rather than go back to his hometown, and live a singleton life where one person is full and the whole family is not hungry.
He once contacted me and wanted me to invest in something earth-shattering (similar to a pyramid scheme), I vetoed him, and he was ashamed to say, "My brother, don't look at the books you have read for 20 years, I have also studied in social universities for more than 30 years, and I have a better vision than you, otherwise we will see who is better in 30 years?"
I heard that this product recently went to northern Myanmar, and it is estimated that he was not deceived, and with his flow, he should have taken the initiative to find an organization.
Qingfeng ran away from home when he was 17 or 18 years old, threatening to go out and make a fortune, but more than 20 years have passed, and he is unsatisfactory outside, and he bragged as soon as he came back, saying how to spend money outside, but until the death of his sister-in-law, he did not see the money of this bear child.
8. Father and sister-in-law
After 2010, my father had two strokes, the latter one was quite serious, and he lived semi-independently, so he could only move around in the yard, but fortunately, the eldest sister and the second sister took care of him in the morning and evening.
My sister-in-law often came to see my father, and they all praised the eldest sister and the second sister for their filial piety, and said that my father had a good life and many daughters.
A few months before my father's death, my sister-in-law came every day, came early and returned late, holding my eldest brother's thin and cold hands, and crying for a long time.
When I came to see my father's relatives, they all persuaded my sister-in-law, "Don't shed tears like this, patronize you and cry." Isn't your eldest brother feeling uncomfortable?"
My sister-in-law burst into tears even more, "Seeing my eldest brother like this, I can't help, I feel sad, I have shallow tears since I was a child, my eldest brother has just had a good time, that's it, I love to smoke and drink all my life, sprinkling fish and singing, and now I can't do it." ”
The day before my father died, I returned to the light, reclined on the sickbed, and said that I wanted to eat white taro rice, my sister-in-law quickly got up to buy it, and a gust of wind left, a gust of wind came back, and I bought white taro (sweet potato), washed it, cut it off, boiled it, and fed half of it to my father.
A dozen hours later, her eldest brother, my father, passed away.
My sister-in-law cried a lot, and then stopped crying, and persuaded us not to cry, saying that we had done our filial piety before we were alive, and we just cried in anger.
In the funeral matters behind my father, my sister-in-law who loved to cry stopped crying, and helped us take care of the funeral carefully, telling us what to do and how to do it.
At his father's side are the wine, cigarettes, peanuts and records he loved to listen to.......
9. The sister-in-law's old age
After the age of 60, my sister-in-law was not in good health, with high blood pressure, cerebral hemorrhage, and bone hyperplasia.
It is difficult to be a mother-in-law in the countryside, especially if the mother-in-law has no money, and the daughter-in-law also looks down on her.
My uncle found a cleaning job in the street, which could earn 500 yuan a month, and the two of them took turns to do it, and sometimes they also sold some sugar gourds on the street for a day.
In my hometown over the years, there are many people who go out to work, and those who stay are old, weak, sick and disabled, and have no spending power.
A cousin was looking at a hardware store on the street, and said that she saw her sister-in-law getting up early and selling sugar gourds greedily, and she had no business, and she had to walk around, and she wanted to cry in distress.
When we were children, our nephews and nieces who accepted her selfless love occasionally went to see her, buying some biscuits, milk, instant noodles, ham sausages, etc., and every time she was like a fight, she said that she didn't want anything, pushed around, and was very polite, saying, "If I can come to see my sister-in-law, it won't hurt you in vain, and there is no shortage of these things at home." I couldn't digest my appetite and I couldn't bite my teeth. ”
Sometimes when she was given something, she turned around and brought it back, and it was really helpless to think about it.
Later, the eldest sister, the second sister, Sister Hua, Sister Juan, Sister Juan, Sister Mei, and Sister Ou fought wits and courage, summed up their experience, and said that to send something to my sister-in-law, you have to tear up rice bags, oil bottles, and instant noodles, pour out some of them, and say that they are the rest, so that she has to collect them if she doesn't accept them. In this way, in her later years, she reluctantly repaid her love in her early years.
After 2020, we knew that my sister-in-law was not in good health, and my cousin Qingming often pulled a flatbed truck and took my sister-in-law to the health center to hang water.
Later, we knew about it, and we went to see her one after another, and we also took her to shoot films, and went to the county to see a doctor, but the condition was quite serious, and there was no particularly good way, so we could only take some medicine, supplement nutrition, reduce labor, and pay attention to rest.
For the cousin in the family, in addition to taking some medicine to maintain, it is actually difficult to do anything else, and a bunch of children in the family have to be taken care of, as well as two disabled uncles, and they also have to ask questions, how much energy can they give to the sister-in-law?
Three years ago, my sister-in-law dragged her sick body and finally survived until the day when the oil ran out and the lamp dried up, at the age of sixty-six.
My sister-in-law's life is not easy, her life is humble, her life can not be told much, like dust, the wind together, drifting away without traceability, like grass, obscure, inconspicuous.
We know that she has been to this world, she has experienced life and death, ups and downs, and she has had the same fragility, illness, suffering, joy, eagerness, desire, and touching as ordinary people.......
After all, she left an indelible family memory in our lives.
10. When I saw the hawthorn slices, I thought of my sister-in-law again
Three years after my sister-in-law died, I saw the hawthorn chips in my hometown and thought of my sister-in-law again.
I found a way to make hawthorn chips on the Internet, share it with everyone, and take this opportunity to miss my sister-in-law who has made sugar gourds and hawthorn slices for most of her life.
The main raw materials of hawthorn chips: hawthorn, sugar, sugar.
Equipment and utensils needed to make hawthorn slices: copper pot (aluminum pot, stainless steel aluminum), fine-tied wire sieve.
How to make hawthorn slices:
1. Choose hawthorn without rot and pests. Dig out the stalks and stems, wash them with water, and put them in a pot.
2. Add 50% weight water to the pot and boil for 30~40 minutes to soften the pulp.
3. Beating, and then using a fine-hole steel wire sieve to sieve out impurities such as fruit handles, peels, and cores to make jam.
4. After sugar is concentrated, the scraper is sent to the drying room, taken out when it is dried to seven or eight percent, evenly sprinkled with a layer of white sugar on the surface, and then put into the drying room to dry, take out and cut into round or square slices, and package for sale.
Looking at making hawthorn chips, it is still quite tedious, my sister-in-law worked day after day, when she made hawthorn chips by hand, she must have been thinking about us maiden children, right?
Today, thousands of miles away, at the end of the year, I was in a library in Shanghai, and I also tearfully knocked down my gratitude and nostalgia for my sister-in-law.
(Final)
