I talked to my mother in the evening and listened to her talk about the life of some elderly people in her hometown. I couldn’t help but feel that time flies and takes away not only one’s good years, but also a strong body.
In the countryside, many elderly people, after their children have families, work in the city and can not take care of themselves. They themselves are too old, poor and sick to farm (you have to be in good health to farm and invest some money to do so).
Some of the old men are usually suffering from the pungent smell to empty the toilets for others, or help others to do farm work to earn money despite their fatigue, and when they are idle they will look forward to the red and white celebrations held by people in the village and invite themselves to help and have a good meal. In the spring and summer, the old ladies crawl on the dusty fields to endure the bite of ants and insects, dig some wild vegetables to sell for money (they often receive counterfeit money because they do not know how to use cell phone payment), and in the fall and winter, they hobble in the fields of crops harvested by other people with machines to pick up missed potatoes, corn or ears of grain to earn a living, and when they meet the owners of the land, they are inevitably subjected to blank stares, dislike and even taunts. These elderly people live a difficult, helpless, bitter, tragic, but not desperate life.
I once saw an elderly person in tears and said that her greatest wish was to have a full meal of instant noodles before she died. The old man had four sons and one daughter, and five farmers in one birth. Now that she has passed away, I don’t know if her wish has been fulfilled.
There was another old man who cried to people many times that she wanted a pair of gold earrings and to wear them to her grave. She hinted at it with several of her sons and daughters, but none of them paid any attention to her. They only wanted to save money to buy their sons and daughters a house in the city and get a wife. No one wants to waste money on a coffin flesh.
Another old man living alone, in his nineties, had no money and did not participate in the rural cooperative medical insurance. One night when she went to the toilet, she accidentally broke her leg and was fortunately found and sent to the doctor in time. The first thing the son said when he went back was, “Mom, you’re not dead yet. Drag me to what time. “On the contrary, the old lady’s daughter, who was adopted when she was young, used to visit her and take care of her. Otherwise, she would have died long ago.
An old neighbor, more than seventy years old. Little granddaughter in kindergarten summer vacation from the city back to the countryside, he took to play. He had no money, snacks, toys, nothing to give the child. Seeing the branches of apricot trees decorated with apricots in other people’s yards sticking out of the wall, he found a bamboo pole to knock a few to comfort his little granddaughter, but unexpectedly was found by the owner, splashing sound scolded, and slapped him twice, his young granddaughter was next to him, witnessed a humiliation, I wonder if this will plant the seeds of violence in the child’s young mind, painted with the color of barbarism.
Older people in rural areas, mostly like weeds, are born, grow up and die out. They spend their lives depending on the land, plowing through it, and when they can’t do it anymore, the land waits to eat them into the ground as if they never came.
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