It doesn't matter whether life is long or short at the age of seventy. When it's another birthday, many past events seem to be right in front of me.
The fifth day of the third month of the lunar calendar is my birthday.
Savor it carefully, I do have a birthday that grows with spring.
Looking back on my life, I had a childhood born in New China and grew up under the red flag.
And what really makes me unforgettable is that my parents gave me an infinitely warm and happy home......
Tomorrow is my birthday, and it's really a tide of the past!
Seventy years have passed, and birthdays are like the rings of a tree, which are engraved in my bones......
When I was a child, I didn't know if I was very pampered. However, I have two older sisters in front of me, and I will definitely get more love and love from my parents in the future.
However, my generation had a poor family and a poor living environment, and many brothers and sisters. Many children still can't escape the fate of early death, and such a bad luck almost fell on my head.
I heard my grandmother say that when I was a child, I just came to the world, encountered a cold spring, and my mother, who gave birth to me, no longer has the strength to take care of me. Grandma, who came in a hurry from eighty miles away, put me in her trouser pocket after the cold was purple and there was no crying, and a weak life was slowly revived.
Since then, the warmth and coldness of spring have always been entrenched in my heart.
(Old photo after restoration)
If there is anything worth showing off most about me as a child? It must be the mother-son photo of me and my mother. In the eyes of today's people, they may think that it is not just a birthday photo. What is there to show off. Actually, my peers know that in the countryside in the 50s, there were no photo studios at all, and most children rarely left pictures of their childhood, especially with their mothers.
It is because of my father's work in the county and my mother's love that I have this mother-son photo that makes me feel happy when I think about it for the rest of my life. Therefore, when I talk about this with my old friends of the same age, I feel that I am the lucky ones in life. Therefore, in many reminiscences, I have more than once painted for this preserved mother-son photo.
(Before Repair)
Although I lived a hard life when I was a child, starving and cold, I had the love of my parents and the care of my two older sisters, and I did not suffer too much since I was a child, at least I never starved, even if I ate bran vegetables, I could always fill my stomach. So when I was a child, the spring was the spring of digging wild vegetables to satisfy my hunger, and it was the spring when my sister climbed trees and raised elm money for me and my younger brother to eat. In childhood memories, there are stories of spring, but there is not much of the brilliance of spring.
Later, I grew up, and the story of spring continued.
Every time on my birthday, my mother would remember that giving me something delicious was a pure grain cake in a poor day, and a baked dough cake in a better day. My mother always told me it was because of my birthday. Although I was smiling, I was still a child, and I didn't understand that it was my mother's care and love for me.
I remember when I was in high school, my mother sewed up an old Chinese tunic from my father overnight, and although the patches were stacked and didn't fit well on my body, my mother's clothes that I stayed up late to sew for my birthday not only resisted the light cold of early spring, but also made me feel like I had grown up. I love the tunic that my father wore and it was this dress that accompanied me through my short high school career.
This old tunic was worn until I became a private teacher after I graduated, and my mother, who understood me, saw that I was reluctant to discard the tunic suit, and in another spring, my mother made me a new uniform, although it was made according to the gourd painting scoop, but it was sewn by the mother for her son with new fabrics and new methods. During my three years as a private teacher, I was only willing to wear a dark gray uniform when I was teaching in meetings or when I went out to study.
As an adult, whether I went to school or later joined the work, my mother never forgot my birthday, and she arranged to eat noodles on that day whether I was at home or not.
When I was young and middle-aged, I seemed to have many excuses for not having a birthday, or even forgetting my birthday, all because of my mother's repeated advice, so I had a noodle meal with my mother by chance. Now that I think about it, I am ashamed of my own lack of things, and of the impetuousness and frivolity of my youth! I still regret it, why didn't I understand my mother's loving heart earlier?
It was at the age of knowing the destiny of heaven, after I retired early, I had more days and nights with my mother, and then on my birthday, I didn't need my mother's advice, every birthday, I knew to buy my mother something she liked, and I also understood the true meaning of eating noodles with my mother.
To tell the truth, I realized that the child's birthday is the truth of the mother's hard life. After that, I never said that I didn't want to celebrate my birthday, because it was no longer the age of impetuousness and frivolity. It's just a pity that I learned this truth too late.
When I was sixty-two years old, my mother left me, and I cried very sadly in front of my relatives and friends on that birthday. It was that spring that once again made me feel the warmth and coldness of early spring......
The birthdays in the years have left me with many memories, many happiness, and repentance. Now, without my mother's birthday, it is an empty heart, a sad feeling, a reminiscence of the past, and a long-term nostalgia.
Now, on the day of my mother's death, I know that it is my birthday again. It is to pour out when I go to my mother's grave to pay respects, and it is to express my deep affection for my mother in words......
In fact, my mother, who walked in spring, was not necessarily related to my birthday in spring. But I prefer to believe that there is a providence in the dark.
12 April 2024
The fourth day of the third month of the first year of Jiachen