My Mother in the First Half of My Life, Myself in the Second

[Rural Period Drama | Family Life | A Woman's Growth | Realistic Heartbreak and Warmth]

"In all my life, your mother never had a single day of schooling."

In 1947, Mother was born during a famine in the north.

Her family favored boys over girls. She filled her stomach with wild greens and climbed trees to chop firewood, her body covered in scars.

She never had a single day of schooling, yet with her own two hands she struggled to survive in the yellow earth.

In 1968, an arranged marriage took her into a red-brick house.

Her family constantly demanded things from her, her uncle took whatever he wanted without paying, and her husband's family watched coldly from the sidelines.

She endured hardship every step of the way, never daring to complain.

In 1971, my older brother was born, and Mother finally had something to hope for.

In 1974, my two-year-old younger brother accidentally drowned. It was as if half of Mother's life had shattered.

From then on, she feared water, suffered nightmares every night, and treasured her children more than her own life.

In 1977, I came into the world.

I was sickly from childhood. Mother carried me to every clinic in the village, then made trip after trip to hospitals in the city.

When I was four, Father came back and asked for a divorce.

He went to another city, remarried, and started a new family with a stepmother and a new life.

From then on, the three of us depended on one another in the countryside.

Later, my brother and I grew up, left the countryside, and settled in the city.

On the day my brother got married, he brought Mother to the city in grand style.

After half a lifetime in the yellow earth, she finally found security.

At last, I understood:

Mother spent the first half of her life enduring hardship;

I would spend the rest of mine living for her.

#PeriodDrama #RuralLife #FamilyLife #AWomansGrowth #RealisticFiction

#FavoringBoysOverGirls #ArrangedMarriage #LossOfAChild #SingleMother #Divorce #Stepmother

#FromVillageToCity #CaringForParentsInTheirOldAge