A Bride to Bring Good Fortune in the Seventies: I Nursed My Sickly Husband Back to Health

In 1974, the Su family of Hongqi Commune was on the brink of running out of food. Eighteen-year-old Su Jin was forced to marry into the Shen family in the city for the “astronomical” price of 300 jin of grain and 200 yuan in bride-price. Her groom was Shen Chengyao, the province’s most famous invalid. Born with a heart condition, he had been told by doctors he wouldn’t live to see twenty-one.

Everyone said Su Jin was going to marry a dying man to bring him good luck, and that she’d soon be widowed and remarry.

But with her skill at nourishing him through food and her careful care, Su Jin managed to nurse the frail beauty, who could have stopped breathing at any moment, into better health with every passing year. Shen Chengyao survived to twenty-one, then twenty-five, and by thirty was still vigorous enough to father children with her.

Together, the couple weathered the final years of famine, growing from a poor, sickly pair in a cramped apartment building into a happy family surrounded by children and grandchildren.