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An Old Man's Death
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An Old man died days ago. He was one of my neighbours in my hometown.
I am from a village in north China, therefore it is not too hard for you to be able to infer that my neighbours there are peasants,and soo was the man I am talking about here. In his youth, sidelines were prohibited , only crops were allowed to grow, and even vegetables were forbidden to plant. I am not sure whehter you could imagine what a miserable life people took then. But the man could raise his family well, I do not know why. What I know is that he and his dressmaker wife have three children, two sons and one daughter. I have almost never seen his older son, who is much older than me. The younger boy is as old as me. He is a handsome ，looking like tha actor, Huang xiaoming. By the way I am not very familiar with him either, though he lived near to me and we are of the similar age , for he went to his bother's city to study as a little boy.The two sons both are ever-college students which earn good reputation for the family, especially at he time when the older son got his college enrollment notification. The daughter is just a woman peasant, who married to a man in anther village. As time went on, peasants were couraged to earn money through their diligent work, the man became the first who began to raise chickens and sold eggs and chickens in the market. Meanwhile his wife began making clothes for the villagers openly. They got rich.
Once a habit has formed, it is difficult to be changed, no matter it is bad or good. Now the old man was far from being poor. He has his own money and his children gave him money now and then, but he still lived a thrifty life. He could not stand any wast. Years ago we had had tap water, the old still fetched water from the well just as what people did many many years ago. Unfortuately, not a month ago the bucket fell into the well while he drew water from the well. A bucket may cost only about 20 yuan. however it might mean much to the old man. The bucket bore in his mind constantly. He made his mind to get the bucket out of the well anyway in spite of his wife's nose. One day his wife went to their daughter's home which is not far away, the old man found it was time for him to get the bucket. He latched the door insides so that he could carry out his plan without others' disturbing(His sons and their families live in their cities). He tied one end of a rope on himself and and the other end of the rope on the winlass, and climed down the well. The rope broke and he fell in the well as his bucket had . He was found dead in the well until his wife got back from his daughter's home.
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Post comment Comment (5 replies)
- Reply sunnyv
- So sad. It is difficult for people to be extravagant when they lived a poor and harsh life before. Every single bit is valuable to them. They would not even leave a single grain of rice in the bowl.
The elderly mother of my friend told me that the most delicious meal she had was just a bowl or plain rice and a some sour preserved pickles because it was wartime and she had nothing to eat, so a bowl of rice was so satisfying.
As a matter of fact, we should all force ourselves into hunger to understand the meaning of food. We should also occasionally deprive ourselves of daily necessities to understand how fortunate we are.
In our city, there is a super rich man who made his son live a basic life without any luxury. At first the son hated his father but later he knew what it was like to be poor so he was able to help the poor and enjoy his wealth.
- Reply IMNONARCISSUS
sunnyv: So sad. It is difficult for people to be extravagant when they lived a poor and harsh life before. Every single bit is valuable to them. They would no ...
In fact, sometimes I am puzzled whether it is lucky or not for a man to possess his fortunes.
- Reply lovingfun
- I don't make any comment on him whether he is right or wrong, after all he is now in other part of the world. But I would like say that different lifestyle and points of view toward the world will make us a real man or a sad man, which kind of life we wanna get, just depend on us.
- Reply IMNONARCISSUS
lovingfun: I don't make any comment on him whether he is right or wrong, after all he is now in other part of the world. But I would like say that different lif ...
Yeah! I wrote the blog only because I was somewhat touched by the poor old man's passing by.
- Reply teadrinking
- I can imagine that kind of life in the old days. And I also learnt stories from my parents and the old in our village about decades ago when there was shortage of all those protuct materials. People are not allowed to have any freedom to grow some others, such as raising chickens, ducks. Any of those potential commercial actitivities is forbidden. So I keep a simple life, do not easily dump anything as long as they are still in the vaule. As the reform and opening policy carried out, people are getting better with their life.
Your story of the old man is a story of that kind of tough period of our country went through. Wish everyone has the good babit to keep a good lifestyle by cherishing everything we have right now.
