To Aunt Seven: At least you have been to this world before

A long song, full of thoughts for thousands of years, saddening my heart, do you know?

Thinking back to two years ago. Your body suddenly became ill and you finally changed into a hospital gown. It was the first time I had a video chat with you after I was admitted to the hospital. Even though my eyes were blurred by tears, your eyes could no longer see clearly. However, when you heard that it was me, you still squeezed out a smile from the corner of your mouth. I know you don't want me to worry. Listening to me nagging about my family's shortcomings, you only said a few words.

The day Dad went back to take care of you, there was a butterfly with a yellow body and black wings that had been sticking to the ground at the door of the house and hadn't left for several days. Later, the day my mother went back, the butterfly came again and stayed on the wall at the door of the house for a long time, unwilling to leave. The patients in the ward changed again and again, but you insisted on sitting on bed No. 89 for more than a month until the end of your life.

During that time, your memory declined very badly, and you often couldn't remember who was who. Once when I went back to take care of you, the old lady in the next bed teased you: "Seventh Aunt, who is coming to see you again?" At this time, you finally relaxed your smile and said with pride on your face: "My granddaughter! She has been here for a long time. He's coming back from afar!" "What about this one?" The old lady pointed to the cousin next to me. But you shook your head. Your cousin has been living with you. When you were a child, you helped him wash his clothes. When he grew up, he helped you dry your hair. What a good grandson! I know that you just couldn't remember it for a moment, and you didn't forget it on purpose.

Because your legs and feet are not flexible after the stroke, you are very resistant to bathing. So I coaxed you, who looked like a child, to wash, bathe, and blow-dry your hair, just like you coaxed me when I was a child, but you were much better behaved than I was when I was a child. In fact, from the moment you didn't want to talk, I have been feeling uneasy in my heart. On the weekend of the first month of the month, your husband finally got time to go back to see you. Your face looked brighter than ever before, and your cousin finally brought his future wife. I know, this is the little thought you have been looking forward to day and night. You held our hands and refused to let go, just like we held on to you as children because we were afraid of getting lost. I know, time flies too fast.

Before leaving that day, I stroked your soft white hair, but you never said a word. After leaving the ward with my husband, I suddenly felt so panicked that I left my husband and ran back to hug you tightly. The deep reluctance makes the tears no longer hold back, like dropped beads, scattered on the collar of your clothes, smudged, more like a dark cloud, full of melancholy.

However, the day I was afraid of finally came.

When I received the bad news, it was only a few days before we met that day. Maybe, after meeting all the people you want to see, you finally get your wish and say goodbye to the world of mortals. All love, hate, and hatred are gone. Dad wrote something like this: "When my mother was alive, I didn't think 'son' was a title and an honor. When my mother is gone, I realize that my son has finished his work in this life. I still don't know that I will have the blessing of being a son in my next life." I am not qualified to have another turn. If I don’t change my original intention, I will remember each other forever in this life. The hatred between the yin and the yang will be endless. Every year, there are dreams in the stars, and there is a home in the sea of ??clouds. My heart is full of tears and I wish my parents to go to heaven. Have a good time together!" From this day on, Aunt Seven returned to her roots and was buried deep in history...

Aunt Seven has had a bad relationship with her parents, brothers and sisters since she was a child. When she was six years old, she was forced to be sold to a wealthy family because of her poor family. At an age when she should be loved by her parents, she worked as a maid doing hard labor such as carrying water and chopping firewood. Later, Japan's war of aggression against China began, forcing Aunt Qi to start a long escape with her fellow villagers. Later, the mother-in-law spent nine tons of grain to buy Aunt Seven from a trafficker as the child bride of her son (known as Uncle Qi, who is also the grandfather I have never met). This is how Aunt Seven got her name. Uncle Seven was ten years older than Aunt Seven, and he was a loyal and honest man. Unexpectedly, he passed away due to a cold that night when Aunt Seven was in her early forties, leaving Aunt Seven and her children to depend on each other. From then on, the seventh aunt's thin body carried the rope to pull the cart, leaving early and returning late, pulling the children to grow up. During this period, Aunt Seven also returned to her long-lost hometown to search for the whereabouts of her relatives, but there was no news at all.

Aunt Seven used to have a pair of white teeth, but one day they suddenly disappeared. It turned out that she didn't know where she got the idea, thinking that her "hard life" and neat teeth would harm her husband and be detrimental to her children, so she quietly had her teeth pulled out. So much so that every time she smiles and shows her dentures, I feel sad.

From childhood to adulthood, Aunt Seven has set an example and taught us to be upright and aboveboard people. Those who are honest will succeed. Even if fate is unfair, there will eventually be a day when the clouds clear. Aunt Seven’s earnest teachings are still vivid in my mind. It’s just Aunt Seven’s voice and smile that can only be traced in memories now.

If there is an afterlife, I hope you will still be my dearest seventh aunt.