This article is a short story, and the content is purely fictional, please watch it rationally.
In October last year, I turned 60 and had worked all my life, and I was finally looking forward to retirement.
I have been working for 42 years since I started working at the age of 18 and retired this year, and now I can retire peacefully as I wish.
I still vividly remember the night I officially completed the retirement procedures, and I was in a happy mood and prepared a table at a high-end restaurant.
In addition to my family of five, I also brought my sister's family of six (sister, brother-in-law, niece, niece-in-law and two children) to celebrate this happy occasion with me.
At the dinner table, my wife and I, my sister and brother-in-law and I toasted and drank while reminiscing about the things we have experienced and the people we have met over the past few decades, and we can't help but sigh when we talk about those who have helped us.
Among these people who have helped us and brought us out of our predicament, there is one person that my sister and I still remember to this day, he is our brother-in-law and my mother's brother-in-law.
My sister's uncle and I died of illness last year at the age of 92. He is open-minded and warm-hearted, and he is an elder whom our siblings respect very much.
The eldest uncle is 5 years older than his mother and is the eldest son in the family.
My grandfather and grandmother gave birth to a total of four children, my uncle was the eldest, my mother was the third, and there was an older sister and a younger brother in the middle.
My sister was not treated by my grandfather and grandmother since she was a child, and I heard my father say that it was because my grandfather's family was characterized as a landlord when she was young, and she was severely criticized.
But my mother was in a relationship with my father at the time, and my grandfather and grandmother said that they were afraid that their family would be affected, so they strongly opposed them being together.
But the stubborn mother, despite the hindrance of her grandfather and grandmother, wants to be with her father wholeheartedly.
Later, she even chose to say goodbye and followed her father to a village and town dozens of miles away, where she settled down and got married.
When my grandfather and grandmother found out about this, they cut off their relationship with their mother and never had contact with each other again. So much so that my sister and I were born one after another, and my grandfather and grandmother didn't come to see us once.
For this matter, it has always been a hurdle in my mother's heart that I can't get over. My grandfather and grandmother even warned my uncle, second aunt and brother-in-law that they were not allowed to interact with our family, which became a knot that plagued my mother for many years.
So when my sister and I were young, we didn't have much impression of my grandfather, grandmother, and the second aunt and brother-in-law, but I had a deep impression of my mother's eldest brother and our eldest uncle.
Perhaps because the eldest uncle is the eldest son in the family, he took on the responsibility of reviving the entire family very early. For our family, especially for his third sister and my mother, my uncle has always been very close to us.
I heard my father say that the reason why my mother was able to easily escape from home and elope with my father back then was that her eldest brother played a role in it.
When I was a child, I often heard my mother tell her stories when she was a child, and many of them were related to her uncle, such as taking her younger siblings to climb trees, setting off firecrackers during the New Year, and so on.
In her mother's mind, her uncle cared for her very much, because her grandmother had many children, and they were all somewhat malnourished in the old society at that time.
Especially because of her short stature and cowardly personality, her mother is often bullied, and her uncle will beat up the thugs who bully her mother every time to make her angry.
So in my mother's heart, I have always trusted and relied on her eldest brother, and the relationship is the best.
When my mother fell in love with my father and insisted on marrying despite my parents' opposition, the whole family objected, and only my uncle gave my mother the greatest support.
It wasn't until later that my mother wanted to elope with my father, and it was my uncle who helped hide it from my grandfather and grandmother, so that my father and mother finally achieved positive results.
So for his uncle, not only his mother is grateful to him, but his father also respects him very much, after all, if he didn't have the secret Chen Cang back then, I am afraid that there would be no marriage after his parents.
My sister and I not only have respect for my uncle, but we are also grateful for his generosity to our family during that extraordinary period.
At that time, it was just in time for the "three-year difficult period", and the whole country was in a period of great famine, and our hometown was naturally not spared.
At the time, I was only 7 years old and my sister was 9 years old, and when they were all growing up, it was supposed that they should eat something nutritious.
But in that extraordinary period, not to mention nutrition, it was an extremely luxurious thing to be able to fill your stomach.
I still remember that at that time, my sister and I were often so hungry that we couldn't sleep, and begged my mother to make us some rice, steamed buns, and so on.
But my mother always looked at us with a sad face, and then said to us with a handful of snot and tears: "Children, Mom can't stand you, don't talk about rice and steamed buns, it's good to drink corn paste." ”
In order for my sister and I not to go hungry every day, my father and mother would let us both eat first, and then they would eat later.
But I knew that this was nothing more than a white lie told by my parents, because I often saw my sister and I finish eating, and they would pick up our bowls and lick up the remaining scraps.
But even so, the little food we had left in our family was quickly eaten up, and we were already at the end of the mountain.
One day, my sister and I came home from school and saw our parents squatting under the eaves with a frown, and we knew that things had reached a very difficult point.
When my mother saw my sister and brother coming back, she said to us very embarrassed: "You two should go to your uncle's house, borrow ten catties of wheat noodles, and say that we will return them next year, otherwise our whole family will starve to death." ”
Before my sister and I could speak, my father, who was standing on the side, said, "Let the two children borrow it, how can they say it, or should you go back to your mother's house and ask your mother to borrow some?"
Before my father finished speaking, my mother shook her head, she had not been in contact with my grandfather and grandmother for almost ten years, and my mother gave birth to my sister and me, and they had never come to see us.
My father couldn't resist my mother, so I had to agree to let my sister and I go to my uncle's house to try it out.
In those extraordinary times, every family tightened their belts to get by, and they were not sure if they could borrow wheat.
My parents pinned their hopes on me and my sister, and although we were reluctant, we both knew that if we didn't try it today, the whole family would have to drink the northwest wind from tomorrow.
Before it was dark, my sister and I immediately set out on the road to my uncle's house.
My uncle's family lives in a market close to the county seat, while our family lives in a relatively remote mountain valley, and the two families are more than ten miles apart.
Although the distance is not too far, because the road is basically mountainous, it is very difficult to walk, and my sister and I were worried that it would be dangerous when it gets dark when we returned, so we walked and ran to our destination.
The two of us walked for more than two hours, and we arrived in front of my uncle's house out of breath, and my uncle and aunt were busy packing wheat in front of the door.
Before my sister and I could catch our breath, my uncle took us in his arms and muttered, "Children, why are you here at this point?"
It was only then that my sister and I realized that the sun had set.
But at this time, the two of us couldn't think about whether it was safe on the way back, and the top priority was to open our mouths to borrow 20 catties of flour from my uncle to tide over the difficulties.
But my sister and I hesitated for a long time, and no one was embarrassed to speak.
However, the uncle with a straightforward personality took the lead in speaking: "Your sister and brother came to me at this point, not to ask for food, right?
Looking at my uncle's kind face, my sister and I first had red circles in our eyes, and then we started crying loudly. My sister was crying, wiping her tears with her dirty little hands, and talking about the situation at home.
After hearing this, the uncle first sighed, and then turned around and entered the hall.
My sister and I heard my uncle muttering something to my aunt in the hall, and we didn't dare to move, for fear of saying or doing something wrong, and this trip would be in vain.
A few minutes later, my uncle stood in front of me and my sister with a tightly tied bag from the house, and told us that it was twenty pounds of flour and told us to take it home.
My sister and I were overjoyed to see a bag of flour, and now the whole family didn't have to starve.
We thanked my uncle again and again, and my sister also told my mother that she would return the borrowed flour to my uncle next year, and then we turned around and left.
But my uncle stopped us and told us to have dinner before leaving. My aunt specially wrapped a vegetarian dumpling with flour, and my sister and I each devoured more than 20 of them.
After eating, we were ready to rush back overnight, but my uncle was not at ease and insisted on sending our sister and brother back.
He found a cart and sat on it for me, my sister and the flour belt, and made a flashlight all the way back to our village.
After sending us safely to the entrance of the village, my uncle was ready to hurry home while the moonlight was shining. Before leaving, he did not forget to tell us to carry the flour home safely, and to go to him again if we had difficulties, we are all a family.
My sister and I carried 20 catties of flour into the house, told our parents about the whole process of borrowing grain, and said that my uncle personally sent us back.
When my mother heard this, she rushed out to look for her uncle, but he had disappeared into the night.
When I got home, my mother opened the bag full of twenty pounds of flour, and there was no surprise as she imagined, but tears flowed down her face.
It turned out that in addition to twenty catties of flour in his pocket, there was also a small red ribbon containing two brand-new food stamps.
Looking at all this in front of us, our whole family looked out the window, and our hearts were full of gratitude to our uncle.
Relying on these 20 catties of flour and two food stamps, our family survived that extremely difficult time. Although my uncle has left us, his kindness to our family will always be remembered by us.