Three Marriages in a Fleeting Life: Grandma's Merchant, General, and Veteran

This is my grandmother’s story.

Her name was Pang Yuhu, a precious pearl from Hepu, Guangdong: well-read, gracious, and radiant.

She married three times in her life. From the daughter of a county magistrate, to the young madam of a pearl-and-salt merchant’s family, to a general’s cherished darling, and finally the wife of a veteran, she knew the splendor of a lavish bridal procession, endured displacement amid relentless shellfire, and tasted the bitterness of a life of wine and excess. In the end, she found a peaceful home in her native western Guangdong.

My grandfather, Wu Wenlou, was a brave man from Lianjiang, Guangdong. His life was hard, but he never gave in.

He lost his father at nine and his mother at twelve. At sixteen, he shouldered a rifle and went to war. He joined Sun Yat-sen’s Northern Expedition, then fought the Japanese in Shanghai alongside Cai Tingkai and Chen Mingshu. From resisting the Japanese on the battlefield to working as a funeral master, he saw mountains of corpses and seas of blood, suffered betrayal and false accusations, yet never stopped loving this land.

In the autumn of 1941, she fled home, her body covered in wounds. He caught her beneath the city gate.

Her pearl earrings held the soul of Hepu; his bayonet scars embodied the spirit of the Guangdong Army.

Two souls marked by hardship, united by a bond of understanding, saved one another amid the flames of war and stayed by each other for the rest of their lives.

A new life came wailing into the world in a thatched hut: my father, the brightest light in their years of suffering.

Pearls may grow dull and hoes may rust, but life is like wild grass: it withers and flourishes year after year, forever renewing itself.