As for her earliest memory, I don't know whether she was three or four years old or seven or eight years old, but I must have been very young at that time, because I can't remember the specific things I can describe.
Like most children, my childhood was carefree. But they are not so carefree, because many children's parents are laissez-faire, so they can do whatever they want, but I can't. No matter how I play, someone will force me to finish my homework even if I don't sleep. I'm afraid of her, and her severity has reached the point where I can feel the thrill at a glance. So, even if she didn't check later, I could consciously finish the homework of the day, even if it was very late.
She is strict, but not so unreasonable. I remember clearly one time, it was winter, it rained heavily, it got dark early, and the most important thing was that the power was cut off. At that time, the house was very dilapidated, and the rain leaked everywhere. The family worked hard for a long time and caught all the leaking places with a pot. I didn't finish my homework that day. I refuse to stay up late. I rubbed my eyes and did my homework in the dim candlelight. She put my homework away and let me sleep. I said that the teacher would criticize me tomorrow. When she says the teacher wants to say it, just say I didn't ask you to write it. I was surprised that she always forced me to do my homework, and this time she forced me not to do my homework. The next day, I explained the situation to my teacher, who didn't pursue my unfinished homework. Later, I learned that she wouldn't let me write because she was afraid that dark light would be bad for her eyes.
She is good at knitting sweaters, shoes, clothes and headdresses. Apart from knitting sweaters, shoes and headdresses, what surprises me most is that she can make all kinds of beautiful skirts.
Every year on Children's Day, she will make skirts for us with home fabrics or old clothes. The white shirt, cuffs and neckline are all rags removed from old clothes, plus a red or light blue or green strap skirt. Or a blue or yellow or green shirt with a white strap skirt. Or, it is a blue or red or yellow dress with a bow made of white cloth on the chest. We are three sisters. She makes three sets every year.
At that time, her family was poor and had no money to buy us new clothes, but she didn't want other children to wear new clothes on June 1, and we wouldn't get lost. So before June 1, every time I came home from school, I could see her squatting on the sewing machine at home to make clothes for us, just to let us have a happy Children's Day.
In fact, the cloth used for making clothes is the same every year, but she is good at matching. The clothes we make every year make us fondle admiringly, and also make others praise them. Those pieces of cloth were her dowry when she got married. She used them to make clothes for us, but never made one for herself.
She worked as a peddler for a while. At that time, she was not busy with farm work. She rode her bike around the street, went out early, and it was already dark when she came back.
She has sold clothes, socks, buttons and toilet paper. In fact, at that time, I didn't believe that she would do business at all, because she was honest, not sharp and not smart. I don't know where she got the courage, where she got the goods, and how many roads she had to walk every day to sell her things.
As it turns out, she does everything well and everyone takes care of her. Every time she comes home, there are a few things left in the basket behind her bike. The next morning, she was going to get the goods again.
I asked her why she didn't sell vegetables. She said that food is not easy to sell and everyone's family conditions are not very good. Who has spare money to buy food except necessities?
Actually, I am selfish. I think if she sells food, she can give it to us if she doesn't sell it out!
At that time, I was too naive and selfish. I never thought that she did all this for us. We need money to study. We have three children. We need a lot of money to study. Dad's salary alone can't take care of the three of us, so she tried her best. She handed over the tuition she had prepared to the school just after school started. I never thought about her difficulties and how much she suffered for money, but she never told us.
Perhaps because of her forbearance and strength, I ignored her sufferings and the poverty of her family and lived an optimistic and cheerful life, because she could give us everything we needed and never let us be wronged financially. She just wants us to study hard and never lets us do farm work at home. Therefore, even if I was born and raised in the countryside, I don't know rice and wheat, and I can't tell weeds from leeks. At that time, every time I fried leeks, I would mix grass with leeks and fry them.
After doing small business for a while, she found another job, mending sacks for a small workshop at 8 cents each. She has been making up for it all day without rest. She can make up more than 200 yuan and earn 20 yuan. Every morning, she cooked breakfast for us and left. She didn't come back until it was dark at night, and then she cooked dinner for us. She is so busy that she never seems to have a rest.
Once she came back late and it rained heavily that day. It happened that my father was ill in bed and had a high fever, which was very serious. We were at a loss and waited for her at home. As soon as she got off the bus, she went to the doctor with a flashlight. I don't trust her alone. I rushed into the dense rain with her. She pulled me to run very fast. I trotted after her and cut across the field. The road is narrow and slippery. I kept wrestling, getting up and running. A small bridge of a small river was flooded, but we still waded across the river. I can't see the specific location of the bridge clearly at night, so I have to explore the road slowly with my feet. The water was urgent, so I pulled her tightly and walked with me. Finally, I went to the clinic and found a doctor to see my father.
The next day, I heard that the river was flooded seriously. She joked with me that if we both fell into the river and drowned last night, no one would know. I told her I wasn't scared at all. Yes, I'm not afraid of anything with her.
Later, a relative introduced her to work in a clothing factory in the city. She can make clothes and bear hardships, so she works easily and does better than many old employees. She gets up early and comes home late every day. Rain or shine, she never asks for leave. It rained many times, and she went home to soak in the water, soaked through and didn't complain.
At that time, on the day of monthly salary, she would buy food for us and bring it back, sometimes a bag of meat buns, sometimes a bag of freshly baked cakes, sometimes baked cakes, and sometimes boxes of instant noodles.
When she brought the box of instant noodles home for the first time, we were all shocked. At that time, a steamed stuffed bun was only fifty cents, a bucket of instant noodles was also three dollars, and a box of 12 barrels was thirty or forty dollars, which was quite a sum.
We all gathered around the box of instant noodles and excitedly discussed whether to eat dry or soak. I remembered to ask her why she spent so much money to buy instant noodles for us. She said that she cooked it overtime that month, so she saved it if she didn't eat it.
That month, they were very busy and often worked overtime until late. When she worked overtime, she didn't go home and lived with relatives in the city.
I suddenly feel very sad. She didn't eat dinner for more than ten days, just to leave instant noodles to us with few snacks to eat. She worked late into the night hungry, all for us!
However, she always looks calm and doesn't tell us how hard she works. She is always happy after work. She said, I feel very happy when I think of your satisfaction when you eat this box of instant noodles. I have been thinking that when I have saved enough boxes, I will take them home to surprise you. I don't like eating these things myself.
She worked in that clothing factory for several years. I don't remember. I just think that for so many years, she has earned us tuition and living expenses rain or shine.
She is very busy at work and has to farm at weekends. There are rice, cotton and rape at home. She works in the fields whenever she has time, but she never asks us for help. She seems to be omnipotent, omnipotent. Even so, she never relaxed her discipline on us. She seems to be the navigator on our growing road. If she strays a little, she will pull us back in her own way.
The way she disciplined us was simple, direct and rude, that is, fighting! We are often defeated.
I was often beaten when I was a child. Being beaten for disobedience, being naughty, lying, fighting with others, fighting with my sister, grabbing things, and being beaten by her after school. I didn't do well in the exam, so I found an excuse to be beaten ... in my memory, I really got a lot of beatings. Beating can't make me remember for a long time, but if I beat her too much, she will be a deterrent. No matter what I do, I will weigh whether she will be angry or not.
What impressed me the most was the fourth grade of primary school. It happened to be my birthday. It's raining hard. On the way home from school early, a small river overflowed. I saw a lot of shrimp in the river, so I caught a big bag of shrimp by the river. When I got home, she had been waiting for me at home for a long time. Because it was my birthday, I made poached eggs for me. She asked me what I was doing, but I didn't dare to say, but she dug out the bag of shrimp from my bulging schoolbag. She asked me where I was from, and I said it was my birthday and someone gave it to me. She turned my palm for a while and then made me kneel. Then, I was beaten! In fact, I knew from the beginning that she would be angry, but I was lucky to think that she wouldn't hit me on my birthday today! She beat me and cried. She said, I told you to catch shrimp. No one knows when you drowned in such a heavy rain, and you lied! She hit me and cried. I was wronged and cried sadly. Today is my birthday!
She always hits us with her hands. How much can it actually weigh? When I was a child, I was beaten and cried, not because of pain, but because of fear!
Later, she told me, do you know why I know you catch shrimp? I said I didn't know, she said, even if my hands were dry after playing with water, there was water hidden in my palm print, which could be seen at a glance. I suddenly realized that she was too clever.
That night, she peeled the bag of shrimp, fried it for us, and said to her sisters, Sister, eat more for you! I finally put down my heart and knew that she didn't care that I lied to catch shrimp.
Now that I have my own children and have my own methods to educate them, I don't advocate hitting children, but I have to admit that it is simpler and more effective to fight when necessary than to preach. For example, since that beating, I never dared to go to the river to play with water and catch shrimp alone, avoiding the bad luck that I might be drowned as a child.
Many times, I feel that there is a restless factor in my bones. In the process of growing up, if it weren't for her restraint and discipline, I would have become a bad boy, maybe fighting with others, maybe playing truant, maybe smoking in primary school, maybe being discouraged by the school, maybe becoming a little sister ... but in the end, although I didn't become a talent, I didn't get worse. Although I didn't succeed in my studies, I didn't embarrass them. I am on the verge of good and bad, and she has been dragging me. So, until today, at this moment, I still appreciate her sternness and kindness. Although my life is ordinary, I have never given up on myself.
When she was a freshman, her clothing factory closed down. Just when she was unemployed, suddenly, the village Committee election, she was inexplicably elected as a candidate by many people, and then successfully became a member of the village Committee.
I was in a high school far away, and she called me to explain the situation. I find it incredible. She is too ordinary to be introduced by acquaintances or canvassed for her. How could she suddenly be chosen by everyone!
Later, at home, many neighbors chatted together, and someone told me that she was really a very capable person and raised you three so well. If it weren't for her and your father's teaching salary, you wouldn't have been able to scrape together enough tuition. She is kind and friendly to people, and she will help her when she is in trouble at home. So everyone will think of her when they vote.
I feel warm in my heart. I feel very proud that she has such a good impression in everyone's mind!
At that time, many people went out to work, and I asked her why not. She said, I don't trust you to stay at home. She said it's good now, because she can work, take care of her family and take care of you!
She works very hard and often runs outside in the sun or in heavy wind and rain. Whenever the phone calls and she needs to come over, she will put down everything in her hand. Sometimes the food is half-fried, sometimes the food is half-eaten, sometimes the clothes are half-washed, and sometimes she is ill in bed ... I have never seen her delay her work because of personal matters at home. Sometimes we finally go home, and she can't accompany us to have dinner at home. I complained to her, and she said it was my job. Besides, if I make you happy, others will be unhappy. I can't keep others waiting.
She has worked in the village Committee for fourteen years with this working attitude and is deeply respected and loved by the villagers. Now every time we go home, even if she asks for leave, she will still leave us at home to do business when something happens and come back to cook for us after it is done. However, now, instead of blaming her, I feel sorry for her hard work, but she seems to have unlimited energy and never knows fatigue.
She is 53 years old and has just celebrated her birthday. May the years be merciful and give her less suffering. May the most important woman in my life, my mother, be safe, happy and healthy!