My father was a veteran. He participated in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and in 1964, he took off his military uniform because of his work and became a staff member of the central state organs.
My father
In my impression, although my father took off his military uniform and took off his collar badge and cockade, he wore the military uniform the most. In winter, the breeches were issued during the fifties, and in the summer, the light gray and navy blue tunics were just embellishments, and the most worn were washed white herringbone military uniforms. In the early seventies, my father's old comrades-in-arms gave him a few sets of 65-style green military uniforms, which became his regular uniform, and when everyone saw him in the unit, he wore a green shirt the most, blue or green pants, and a green military cap.
First conferment photo in 1955 (my father in the middle of the back row)
My father was a veteran, joined the anti-Japanese armed forces in 1938, and officially joined the Jinchaji First Division under the leadership of Nie Rongzhen in 1939, becoming a revolutionary soldier, and was seriously wounded in a large battle of the Anti-Japanese War. The bullet went through both cheeks, knocked out teeth, and the face was swollen and unable to eat, and it was Aunt Shin who poured egg soup through her nose with a reed tube to keep her father alive. Because of his weak body and typhoid fever, after treatment, he was considered alive, but his hair fell out, and he was thin and out of shape, and his weight was only a few dozen pounds.
Speaking of which, my father is also a big fate. From the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation to the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the comrades-in-arms around him fell one by one, but he survived and saw liberation.
My father's biggest hobby is smoking, and since I was sensible, whenever I saw my father at home, the most common picture was that he was smoking. And his habit is that whenever gay men are together, the first thing he does is hand him a cigarette. Of course, there are exceptions, as long as Aunt Shen Ying comes to the house, the two of them are the best smokers, they talk about the things and people in the past war, while drinking strong tea and smoking, and when Aunt Shen leaves, the smell of smoke gathered in the house is choking, and it will not go away for a long time, because he has smoked for more years, the fingers of his right hand have been smoked to burnt yellow.
His father smoked all the year round, and his cough followed him all his life, and his mother persuaded him a few words, and he immediately replied: "During the war, I smoked beans and leaves, eggplant, and now I am not allowed to smoke, impossible!" At this time, he was like Shi Guangrong in "The Years of Burning Passion", his small eyes widened, and he loudly announced his rights, so that our family was all defeated. However, he also listened to it once, that is, in the last half year of his life, he was admitted to the senior cadre ward of the People's Hospital because of heart failure, and he listened to the doctor's persuasion. I really didn't smoke in the months I was discharged from the hospital, and I just ate a small snack every day to pass the time. The family looked at him helplessly and felt a little pitiful, but in order to let his body recover as soon as possible, they still made up their minds and didn't let him smoke. Four months later, he was still gone in his sleep, and on the same day four months after the departure of his best comrade-in-arms, Uncle Zhao, who was like a brother, he also went to heaven to be with his old comrades-in-arms......
Father and his best comrade-in-arms, Uncle Zhao Baohua, took a group photo
Dad is an approachable person, no matter where he is, he is always surrounded by ordinary people, in the army, in the organs, in the cultural units, this is the case. Cooks, guards, and civil servants in the army, drivers in government offices, doormen in communication rooms, and logistics staff, composers, directors, and photographers in cultural units can knock on the door of his office and bedroom in the middle of the night and ask him for a pack of cigarettes and a bag of snacks.
Therefore, our final resting place did not bury him in the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, which symbolizes honor, but buried him in Futian Cemetery like ordinary people, enjoying a quiet and undisturbed life under the green trees.
It has been more than 20 years since his father died, and his mother also passed away with him in 2020. Every year on April 7, my father's death day, my siblings and I would go to his and my mother's grave and say a few words to them, saying that their three granddaughters and granddaughters were all right, and that their great-granddaughters were doing well in the United States, and that we were all right, so that he and his mother could rest assured.
Dear fathers and mothers, rest in peace, and we will always remember your voices and smiles!
Written before the Qingming Festival in April 2024