Xiaomei's biological parents have found her. When they left Xiaomei by the roadside in Hanyang years ago, they knew that the Tan Guangfen family had adopted Xiaomei. After learning about Tan Guangfen's current difficulties, they wanted to take Xiaomei home.
Tan Guangfen lives near the Yaolu堤 bus stop in Jihe Community. During the summer, she would walk in the dark at 3 a.m. to the former location of Jiangdi Village, five miles away, where she had cultivated an acre of wasteland.
In 2006, the place where Tan Guangfen's private house was located needed renovation. To support urban construction, she voluntarily closed her small restaurant, and the whole family moved to Jihe Community, relying on her husband's mechanical repairs for living. Yesterday, on Hanyang Ma Ying Road, Tan Guangfen supported her family by selling self-grown vegetables and pickled vegetables, as a woman begged for help to treat her daughter who was in a coma after a car accident. This photo was taken by our reporter Fu Jian.
The hardest work in growing vegetables is carrying water. A large oil drum can hold nearly 40 kilograms of water, and one yoke of water is nearly 80 kilograms. There are no wells near the vegetable field, so water has to be fetched from a dragon whisker ditch ten meters away. During high temperatures, Tan Guangfen needs to carry 40 yokes of water to irrigate all the vegetables.
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Our reporter Zhou Sunyang, correspondent Gao Jinfang
Changjiang Business Daily (Weibo) Message In 2006, to cooperate with urban construction, she closed the only source of income for her family - a small restaurant, and relied solely on her husband’s mechanical repair work; in 2008, her husband died unexpectedly, her son in his twenties suffered from autism, and Xiaomei's biological parents wanted to take their daughter home.
Tan Guangfen is from Yichang. In 1988, she settled in Hanyang with her husband. Her family consists of a son and an "adopted daughter." Relying on their private house, they ran a small restaurant on Binjiang Avenue, supporting a family of four.
Yesterday at 15:00, in the Baijia Yi vegetable market in Hanyang, Tan Guangfen was skillfully serving the neighbors, weighing and collecting money for vegetables. Her son and daughter were helping her. The neighbors who know her call her the "Iron-Shouldered Mother."
After moving, not long after, her son Xiaoqiang, working outside, was mentally stimulated by an event and developed a mental disorder of autism, thus never leaving the house again. In early 2008, Tan Guangfen's husband died in a car accident, and the heavy burden of life fell entirely on Tan Guangfen.
In March of last year, Xiaoqiang, invited by his cousin who attended Wuhan Military Academy, stepped out of the house for the first time in four years and stayed for nearly half a year at her brother's home in Yichang. In September, Xiaoqiang returned home and learned about the family's difficult situation at the time.
"That was the first time in four years he told me he wanted to work," Tan Guangfen said, unable to hold back her tears. He can now help with odd jobs in the familiar community.
Carrying 80 kilograms of water to irrigate the vegetable field
"I must come early," Tan Guangfen said. She finishes her farm work in the garden every day as early as possible to catch the good time for selling vegetables around eight or nine o'clock in the morning.
Last September was the hardest time for Tan Guangfen's family. The savings left by her deceased husband had been spent, and the wasteland she cultivated could no longer be used for growing vegetables. At that time, her daughter Xiaomei was in her second year of high school, and the school required her to pay nearly 4000 yuan in tuition fees for the year.
Her neighbors suggested she apply for low-income assistance, but she refused. Tan Guangfen said, "My household registration is in Yichang, and if the street office helps me with low-income assistance, it will be very troublesome. Now I grow vegetables to support my family, so why bother everyone?"
After Xiaomei learned about her origins, she calmly told Tan Guangfen, "Whether or not we are related by blood, I want to spend my whole life with you."
Xiaoqiang quietly told the reporter that he wants to slowly do more work to help his mother support the family.
Her husband suddenly died in a car accident.
"Healing" her son and keeping her "daughter"
However, she did not give up on life. She once refused low-income assistance and walked 10 miles round trip every day to cultivate wasteland in the city's "cracks" and grow vegetables, shouldering the entire family on her own.