Chongqing - The night is usually the busiest time for the Sanyawan Aquatic Product Market of Yubei. On the night of July 16, Zhou Qianhui, 50 years old, is busy organizing delivering the products. “I want three (boxes) cuttlefishes, one eel, and three file fishes to deliver through this van,” comes the request.
It is past 9 o’clock when she takes a moment to herself. She goes to a quiet corner and calls Shao Kaizhen, a nurse of First People’s Hospital of Liangjiang New Area: “How’s my grandpa? How did he feel today? Did he sleep or not?” She hangs up the phone and becomes worried after hearing that her grandpa wasn't eating. Then she calls back: “Miss Shao, I will send my grandpa pumpkin porridge tomorrow after I am off.”
The elder obsessing on Qianhui’s mind is Ke Ruilin, and he's 111 years old. He is not her grandfather in the sense of kinship. They have lived in the same neighborhood for over 30 years. However, over the past 15 years, Zhou Qianhui has always cared for this centenarian’s life.
Zhou Qianhui is feeding Ke Ruilin with pumpkin porridge in First People’s Hospital of Liangjiang New Area. June 27 (Chongqing Daily/ Cui Li)
30 years ago, he used to be a friendly elder good at cooking
Ke Ruilin was born in 1910 in Jiangjin, Chongqing. He married Xie Shuqing 30 years ago and lived in Renhe Town. Zhou was a little girl then and knew that elder Ke worked as a chef, loving to share his craft with neighbors. She remembered that elder Ke would spare a plate of dishes to her family whenever he’d cooked something delicious. “My parents often helped these two elders to carry water and plant sweet potato.”
The two families maintained a friendship, and the elders quite liked Zhou Qianhui. At the age of 19, Zhou started her first job at the restaurant where Ke worked. Zhou says: “when I knew nothing about the society, Grandpa Ke taught me a lot. My grandpa died when I was very young. To me, Ke is like my own grandfather.”
In 2003, Zhou Qianhui met Ke Ruilin again when Ke was looking for an apartment to rent. Zhou, at this time, was already a mother of a child, and Ke was a childless elder, giving up the government-provided resettlement apartment to afford his wife’s medical bill produced by cerebral thrombosis. Ke rented Zhou’s apartment. Zhou usually charged half of the rent or sometimes didn’t ask for it.
Zhou also helped Ke to take care of Xie. Once she went to the rented apartment and smelt a strange odor, she immediately went to get hot water to wash Xie. “Zhou Qianhui was very careful at taking care of the elder. She bought a hairdryer for the elder in case the cold infected Xie after shower”, neighbor Xia Yubi recalls.
14 years ago, she added his name to the household register
Xie Shuqing passed away in April 2006, making Ke a lonely older man in the rented apartment. “I’m afraid” became the phrase he frequently mentioned. In Zhou’s memory, Ke liked sitting outside of the supermarket next to the apartment during the day, at night yelling about letting Zhou’s father stay with him. Zhou felt that old Ke Ruilin was afraid of being alone.
She never thought that her husband would agree with her immediately about moving into Ke’s rented apartment. She said it to the old man:” as long as I have meat to eat, you wouldn’t have to only drink soup.” From that time, Zhou Qianhui never received a penny from Ke. She and her husband called Ke Ruilin “grandfather,” and her son would call him “great grandfather.”
Deng Zhonghong, a 28-year-old young man as he is now, says that he often slept with the “great grandfather.” “Mom said, ‘this is your great grandfather, and you will look after him.’ I have one more kind elder since then to protect me from my parents’ criticism.” Ke Ruilin found a new home in this family.
An authorization of hospitalization signed by Zhou Qianhui shows that her relationship with Ke Ruilin was “grandfather and granddaughter,” according to Dr. Xu of First People’s Hospital of Liangjiang New Area. “That’s not weird, 'cause we are already,” she said.
Ke Ruijin lost his household register and ID card over the past decades of struggle. Because of that, he could not have subsistence allowance even though he did not have any income. In 2007, with the help of Renhe Street’s official, Ke “officially” became Zhou’s grandfather, for which Ke received his subsistence allowance finally, while Zhou kept applying other subsidies for him. Ke wanted to give all his money to Zhou, but Zhou insisted on him keeping them.
For 15 years, love blooms in the small adobe
Zhou Qianhui is cleaning Ke Ruilin’s room in Renhe Street, Liangjiang New Area. June 27 (Chongqing Daily/ Cui Li)
In 2010, Zhou divorced her husband and brought her grandfather and the son to where she lives now, a 60 square meters apartment with two bedrooms. She slept in the living room and gave two rooms to the elder and the son. “My son is in love. He needs space”, she says.
Zhou Qin, who lived next door, says that Zhou Qianhui slept in a small bed in the living room with a suitcase storing all her clothes, whereas Grandpa Ke’s clothes were neatly stacked in the closet. “I mean, how many people can do that for an unrelated elder, and for so long?”
Zhou Qianhui says that not only did her grandfather not worry her too much but also helped her a lot on daily issues. Grandpa Ke would take care of her son when Zhou was at work. For a couple of years, when Zhou and her husband set up a barbecue stall for a living, Grandpa Ke would get up early and clean the dishes and food materials to let his granddaughter sleep more. Grandpa could still share some housework like cleaning the room until two years ago, going shopping, letting Zhou eat “what’s hot.”
Grandpa Ke’s favorite thing was having Zhou Qianhui chat. He had an old flip phone in which the first contact is Zhou Qianhui. “Zhou Qianhui is very patient with his grandfather. We often go to her stall and see her killing the fish while clamping the phone with the shoulder, saying not just a few words to her grandpa”, said Jing Tinghui, the other neighbor, recalled vividly.
On the day of this interview, Ke Ruilin is lying on a hospital bed near the window in First People’s Hospital. Zhou Qianhui wipes the secretion coming from Ke’s eyes and feeds him with pumpkin porridge. Ke’s sight and hearing are deteriorating, and he can only mumble a few words occasionally. But his reaction is not slow when being asked about who the woman in front of him is: “This is my granddaughter, my beloved granddaughter.”
A treasure to her family
From 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., Zhou Qianhui works in Sanyawan Aquatic Product Market in Yubei Chongqing. Occupied as she is, 3000 yuan is what she can earn for a month. Still, she never stops buying milk, fruits, and roast meat, foods that grandpa likes the most.
The past two years were very tough for Zhou Qianhui. Grandpa’s medical bill was getting larger as he went to the hospital at an increasing frequency. But she said that the most challenging year was 2011 when she just divorced her husband and had to pay over 10,000 yuan for her son’s college tuition, plus her own 20,000 yuan of social insurance expense. She had no choice but borrowed money from her parents.
Zhou’s father, Zhou Fuquan, 81 years old, and mother, Cao Sufang, 78 years old, are all newly settled urban residents who received 3000 yuan pensions per month. Cao Sufang is suffered from osteoporosis and has to use a walking stick.
“Do you feel jealous when your daughter spends more time taking care of an older man instead of you?” Journalist asks.
Zhou Fuquan answers: “No. The thing is that she is the only one that the old man can rely on. Besides, we still have three sons who are all very kind to us.”
Every fourth day of the first month in the Chinese calendar is Ke Ruilin’s birthday. Zhou’s relative will gather in the apartment and have a birthday meal for the old man, picturing a warm scene in the Hemu Road community during the New Year vacation.
Among the neighbors, there are praises about Zhou’s story and also suspicion. Some people think that Zhou adds an extra burden to this uptight family. Zhou had dated a couple of men after divorce, but they soon stop building a closer relationship after knowing the existence of Ke Ruilin.
“I do not expect everyone to understand me. My grandpa is not a burden. Instead, he is a treasure to my family”, Zhou says.
Three years ago, Kong Xiangming showed up. He is six years older than Zhou Qianhui. “Zhou insisted matchmaker introduce her situation completely, yet I did not mind at all. I found her quite nice. I have a mother of 90 years old. Doing good to elders is a traditional virtue of our society.” The relationship between Zhou Qianhui and Ke Ruilin made him appreciate her more.
Once their relationship was confirmed, Zhou Qianhui brought Kong Xiangming to have a hotpot meal with her grandpa. Whenever Ke Ruilin wants to eat hotpot, he would ask Zhou to call Kong – “it’s time to show yourself.”
Feeling Zhou’s work is too hard, Kong plans to rent a public apartment after retirement and do some small businesses, letting Grandpa Ke happily live a few more years.