Yang Sen feeds water to his "mom". Every day, Yang's father and mother show filial piety to grandma, and the children see it all. Busy with business during the day, taking care of "mom" after work is tiring. Yang Sen and his wife jointly change the diaper for their "mom." "Mom, here comes the water, open your mouth," gently patting the old lady's thin and bony, wrinkled hand, Yang Sen handed the straw connected to the water cup to the edge of the old lady's mouth. After the elderly woman sipped some water, Yang Sen proceeded to rub her back a few times and helped her turn over.
A 36-year-old rural young man from Shaanxi Province and a 95-year-old paralyzed solitary elderly woman from Beijing, this "mother-son" pair has no blood relationship. A military-civilian friendship event brought happiness to the late years of the elderly woman.
17 years ago, Yang Sen, who now works in online advertising sales, was serving in the army in Beijing when he met his current "mom", Zhi Wenping, at a joint activity with Dongzhimen Street. "She is old, suffers from heart disease, her husband passed away during the revolution, she has no children, and is on low-income assistance." Afterwards, Yang Sen insisted on regularly doing housework for the elderly woman, chatting with her, and helping her run errands.
Year by year, their feelings deepened. The elderly woman trusted him as if he were her biological son. Yang Sen said that his parents passed away early, and while helping the elderly woman, he also enjoyed maternal love from her. In 2005, the small flat where the elderly woman lived was going to be demolished, and the street office said they would send the solitary elderly woman to a nursing home. "I will never forget the look in mom's eyes when she spoke to me that day. She said she would rather die than go to the nursing home, then looked at me. I said, then you come with me, I will take care of you. The elderly woman nodded." A promise made, Yang Sen kept it until now.
Yang Sen's wife, Qin Yuhua, said that during their courtship, she thought Yang Sen was fabricating a great story. After seeing it with her own eyes, she believed, "he is a good person," and followed Yang Sen together to show respect to elders.
Yang Sen said that taking care of the elderly, dealing with excrement, being tired, and spending money are not scary, what scares him is having to ask for help, especially when the elderly gets sick and needs to go to the hospital. In May this year, the elderly woman was hospitalized three times consecutively. After the third discharge, she could no longer move and could only lie down, needing to be fed, and had a urinary catheter inserted. Because the urinary catheter fell off, Yang Sen, a grown man, ran to the hospital in tears, begging the doctor to come and replace the tube, "it's too hard to ask for favors." Ultimately, a kind-hearted doctor was moved and broke the rules to help Yang Sen.
At Yang Sen's home, Zhi Wenping lies in bed, covered with several layers of blankets, her mental state still quite good. "My son is good, and so is my daughter-in-law," the elderly woman said that she has a big temper, "but they never dare to talk back, afraid I might get sick."
Many people around them say Yang Sen "has lost his mind," and some even say he must have an ulterior motive regarding the elderly woman. Yang Sen just smiled when he heard this, saying that during the demolition, the elderly woman didn't ask the street office for a single penny of demolition compensation, and directly moved in with him.
Yang Sen remembers a story he heard as a child, about a daughter-in-law who didn't give her mother-in-law enough food to eat. After the mother-in-law died, the daughter-in-law wanted to throw away the bowl used by her mother-in-law. At that time, the grandson said, "Mom, don't throw it away, when you get old, I'll use it for you." "Mom gave me maternal love, my child has a grandmother, we are a complete family. Today, everything I do is seen by heaven and my daughter, I can face my conscience."
Zhi Wenping's wish is to be buried with her husband after she passes away. Yang Sen said that when he has time, he will go to Hebei to find the grave of the elderly woman, hoping to fulfill mom's last wish.
This article was written by reporter Wen Jing. Photographs were taken by reporter Zhu Jialei.