Qilu Evening News Qilu One Point reporter Guo Chunyu Tian Ruye
It's really an inconspicuous house.
From Shandong Provincial Hospital to the west, first walk through a narrow and curved alley, then through the small shop full of various flavors, and finally at the end of the street to step on the "pop" staircase, which is the address of the love kitchen.
It is a small house of just over 40 square meters, compact and cramped, with the typical style of staff dormitories in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, this humble house has become a place of comfort for the parents of many children with leukemia. They cook and mingle for free here, and huddle together to keep warm in the midst of the smoke.
Love kitchen located next to Shandong Provincial Hospital
A kind idea makes the kitchen a "loving kitchen"
At the beginning of February, Liu Zihao came to love kitchen for the first time. He is 21 years old and his 5-year-old sister was diagnosed with leukemia at the end of 2020.
The mother accompanied her sick sister in the hospital, and the father returned to Haiyang's hometown to clean up the things he needed for his sister's hospitalization, and the heavy responsibility of renting a house fell on Liu Zihao.
Before his sister fell ill, Liu Zihao, who had been studying at school, never felt that he was an adult "adult". The "war" between the eldest and the second will never be extinguished because of the age gap, and he will also quarrel with his sister at home, compared to the "connivance" of his parents to his sister, he always "does not know how to let his sister." ”
My sister, who has been bouncing around, is sick, and her parents seem to be getting old overnight. Liu Zihao, who has always felt that he is still a child, needs to shoulder the heavy responsibility of taking care of his sister. The sister's patient family suggested that he go to the love kitchen next to the hospital to see, "The big guys are there, if you don't understand, ask Li Peng, he is a good person." ”
The "good man Li Peng" in the family's mouth is now lying on the table in the kitchen living room to register materials. It is said to be a living room, but it is a small space of less than 10 square meters. Except for a table in the middle and a few chairs that had been painted mottled, all the space was filled with cupboards and materials.
Looking up from the thick folder, Li Peng familiarly beckoned Liu Zihao to sit down, and after a simple exchange, pulled Liu Zihao to the WeChat group in the love kitchen, and released the rent-seeking information - three minutes later, the information in the WeChat group flashed, and some group friends replied: Next week, I will go back to my hometown for treatment, and the house can be sublet.
The inner room of the Love Kitchen is filled with books donated by caring people
What kind of disease is leukemia, what to pay attention to in the treatment process, what to give the child to eat, when is the most painful, when the immunity is the lowest, how parents should adjust themselves... Pile by pile, piece by piece, Li Peng carefully explained to Liu Zihao. Liu Zihao, who had been stretched, cried, and Li Peng did not speak, poured him a glass of water, and silently waited for him to finish crying.
Such scenes and tears, Li Peng has seen too much. This was the path he had taken, and now he was pointing to others to go again— taking the child's family to take a fewer detours, and the child would suffer a little less.
Li Peng is the initiator of Love Kitchen. Founded in June 2017, Love Kitchen was originally a house rented by Li Peng for his daughter's medical treatment. Daughter Xuanxuan suffered from leukemia in the provincial hospital treatment, in order to facilitate her daughter's treatment, Li Peng rented a house near the hospital to cook for her daughter. The diet of children with leukemia needs special attention, especially after chemotherapy, the body is extremely weak and needs extremely fine dietary care, Li Peng beckoned some family members of children who are inconvenient to rent a house to cook at home. After a long time, more and more people came here to cook, and the name of "Love Kitchen" was slowly shouted.
Many family members of children with leukemia like Liu Zihao came to visit. In the love kitchen, in addition to "cooking", comforting each other, helping each other, and hugging each other to warm up gives them the strength to persevere.
Most of the cooking is Dad
The loving kitchen, which occupies only a few square meters of the room, is filled with bottles and cans containing spices. Several woks are polished, and every day at noon, different flavors waft out of them, warming the stomach and heart of a child in the ward.
This small party world, because of the smell of fireworks, has the taste of home.
"It was a place to cook in the beginning, but after a long time, everyone took it as their home." Li Peng said that the child needs to be taken care of by the mother all day in the hospital, and the child's father will follow some procedures to cook and deliver meals to the child, so the basic people who come to the love kitchen to cook are the child's fathers.
During lunch, the family prepares meals for the children in the loving kitchen.
In the love kitchen, "helping each other" is the theme word for warming up. When the child is treating the disease, everyone will have a time when they don't get together, and the big guys will go together to help. Children often face discharge and transfer, so moving is a common thing, and the big guys move together.
The Loving Kitchen records the efforts of dads. They have different identities, including civil servants, cooks, and farmers. Many fathers can't cook when they first arrive, and men communicate with each other to learn their cooking skills, and they can cook a few meals. There was a father who was tall and big, ten fingers as thick as carrots, but the dumplings that came out of the package were small and exquisite, and the children loved to eat; there was a young father who followed the chef to learn the art, the child was treated for a year, and when he was discharged from the hospital, he could go out to open a snack bar.
In order to take care of the children, these fathers basically gave up their jobs, mainly to do odd jobs, deliver takeaways or run at night to drive, but these incomes are particularly meager compared with the cost of children's medical treatment. Money is almost a problem for everyone, but the big guys still try to help each other. Li Peng said that there was once a big brother family who was particularly poor, his wife was sick, his daughter had leukemia, and when he took care of his children, he fell ill and could not move in the ward. Li Peng took turns taking turns with several fathers who cooked in the love kitchen to take care of him and his daughter. The medical expenses of this big brother were also paid by several people.
Every parent who treats a child here has a bitter feeling. Li Peng once met a great aunt from Jining, who slept in the square at night in order to save money for his grandson's treatment. After knowing this, Li Peng found this aunt at night and gave her a simple bed in the love kitchen. In order to thank Li Peng, the aunt became a volunteer in the love kitchen, cleaning as long as she was free.
"Many of our volunteers are family members of sick children, and many of our volunteers are well-wishers in society." Li Peng said that among the volunteers who came here to help, there were flight attendants of Shanhang Airlines, students nearby, housewives, and many ordinary employees of enterprises. "I'm really grateful, I'm very grateful to them, without them, the love kitchen can't survive."
Love, touching and parting are always intertwined in the love kitchen. Leukemia is very easy to recur, even if the bone marrow is changed, it may be repeated. Therefore, many people leave the love kitchen and come back, without asking about the child's condition, which is an undeclared agreement between parents.
"Because I don't know if the other person's child is still there." If the situation is good, it may be directly said, if the situation is not good, everyone is sad. Li Peng said that including himself, every parent here is from the hands of the god of death to give the child back to "pull life", "The people here have not given up their children, only there is really no way." Many parents here, like me, plan to take care of their children as the only thing to do in this life, as long as the children are good, how they are, and it doesn't matter what they suffer. ”
Li Peng, the initiator of the love kitchen, is sorting out the information of the children and their families who helped
The origin is to treat the daughter
Li Peng is the backbone of the love kitchen. He was a thick-looking young man, not very tall, but with the obvious thick eyebrows and big eyes of a Shandong person, he spoke slowly and logically, and looked calm. Before starting the Love Kitchen, Li Peng has been living a very ordinary and happy life, especially his sensible daughter Xuanxuan, who has brought infinite joy and happiness to the family.
"After the child was diagnosed with acute leukemia, I took the child to Tianjin for treatment, and it cost 60,000 yuan a month. The doctor said that the first phase of treatment costs 100,000 yuan. At that time, my family relied on me working in the steel factory to earn money, and I really had no money. In desperation, Li Peng took the child back to his hometown in Tai'an for treatment. In the process of raising the cost of surgery, many well-meaning people in society have reached out to the child, and the efforts of the family have allowed the child's treatment to continue.
"The economy eased up a little, so I took my child to Jinan for treatment. In order to cook for the children, he spent 1500 yuan to rent a house near the hospital. If the family members of the children in the same ward are inconvenient to cook, they will call over to cook and eat together. Li Peng said that when the big guys come to cook, they all bring their own ingredients. Later, in order to facilitate the big guys, I simply bought a locker, each person had a storage drawer, and the province carried the ingredients back and forth.
Leaning against the living room, the lockers take up the size of a whole wall, each drawer is labeled with a different name, many cabinets are not locked, for the parents of children cooking here, the loving kitchen is like home, no fortification.
"My daughter received a lot of help from everyone when she was treating her illness, and I also wanted to give back to those who needed help more." The family members of the children with leukemia who came to the love kitchen felt the same as their difficulties and pains. Happily, after the story of the chef's love spread, the rice noodles, vegetables and money donated by the benevolent people also gathered. Li Peng registered these donations and materials in a pen, not only posted on the wall, but also released in the circle of friends, and the purpose of each sum of money and the flow of each bag of rice were clear. In addition to the daily expenses of the loving kitchen, these funds are also used to provide free lunches and other help for the families of some children with particularly poor economic conditions.
Stand up and go down
Money has always been a big problem that plagues the love kitchen. Almost every day, twenty or thirty people come to cook, chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea, pen pen costs money. Li Peng did not want to charge through the kitchen: "The parents of children with slightly better conditions have rented their own houses, and it is really difficult to cook outside." How do you ask them for money? ”
"In the second half of 2018, when my daughter's condition recurred, I focused on the treatment of my child, and I transferred the kitchen to several other patients to take care of." Li Peng said that the operation of the love kitchen is mainly based on love donations, because the income is not enough, the book funds to maintain the operation of the kitchen are getting less and less, even the rent, water and electricity bills have become a problem, and the love kitchen has encountered the biggest hurdle after its establishment.
Li Peng (left) communicates with the family of the new child
At the beginning of 2019, Li Peng received a call from the landlord and asked him whether he could rent the love kitchen because there was no way to renew the rent. "At that time, my daughter's condition was relatively stable, I felt a lot of peace of mind, and the most important thing is that there are many patients who need to love the kitchen, and it is really a pity that there is no place." Despite the pressure, Li Peng still used the remaining love money from his daughter's medical treatment to pay half a year's rent. After returning to Jinan, Li Peng took over the care of the love kitchen again.
Fortunately, the love kitchen is not supported by Li Peng alone. More and more family members of children with leukemia regard this place as their home.
No one is willing to close this "home" like place. In order to let the love kitchen run, the men here, do not skimp on their own strength, the big guys have opened a water station together, sold vegetables, although because of time and other reasons can not be maintained for a long time, but the social donation support plus the efforts of everyone, the love kitchen is finally maintained.
In early spring in February, everything is full of vitality. Li Peng said that his daughter's current state is not bad, which is the most gratifying thing. "Just stand up and keep going. Everyone worked together in the love kitchen to be a companion, and they also encouraged them to go forward together. ”
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