SUMMARY AND REMINDER

 

Dear Professor,

 

Yes, I have been extremely busy. And 2017 was an extraordinary year for me. It echoes the English saying, Truth is stranger than fiction. I did not write to you often in part because of the events that happened around, mainly out of my concern over your quiet life and your health. It seems that you are faring well, much better than Old Leng.

 

I have lost Old Leng’s son’s phone number. But if necessary I could go and visit him in person. I know where the family lives. Last year the city was bidding for the title China Civilised City. In the thick of the campaign, Mr Leng appeared in a Shiyan Daily feature article, where I learned he was awarded the title Honorary Citizen of Shiyan. Carried with the article was a phot of him dressed in traditional Chinese costumes.

 

Thanks for the semi-ancient photo taken at the first bridge over Hanjiang. I bet most of the characters in the picture are no longer there. Obviously Old Leng and Mr and Mrs Fu are still alive and kicking. Longevity to you all. The photo has been archived.

 

Wow, we could have met in 1992. I started teaching at YYHS in the autumn of 1991, when I finished my 2-year associate degree studies at YYTC in Danjiangkou. Of course I was the most junior member on the English language teaching team then. It occurs to me that a senior colleague of mine, Mr Dan, mentioned some YYHS alumnus working in Taiwan in the office, but I did not give it much thought since I was still in the dark about your existence. 1992 was my second year of teaching English at YYHS. Life is as it is. A near miss means probably we will never be able to meet each other in the flesh any more.

 

I have found you are on my Skype contact list. If you like we could talk face to face on Skype in English, in Mandarin, or in the Yun dialect. I was wondering whether your hearing was still perfect.

 

Of course, there were a lot of up moments in 2017, but the down ones attempted to weigh me down again and again. But for my optimism and balanced lifestyle, I would not have beaten them all and shone. Let me share some of the unbelievable with you. Please do not be scared. Should you desire to hear good tidings, please leave out the following paragraphs.

 

My colleague, Mr Zhang, passed away around mid-September. He died of liver cancer. He joined our team in 2010. We shared the same office all along. He was a class director as well as an English teacher. Working as a class director exhausted him. The cancer was detected in him in the autumn of 2015. Then he was still doing his job day in day out. The disease forced him to go on treatment in the Chinese capital as well as at the local hospitals. His fall saddened me. We had been on good terms.

 

Towards the end of August, another colleague of mine, Ms Xu, was diagnosed with leukaemia. At the time she was teaching two senior classes English. Her husband was on her same team. Ms Xu worked on my team for years. A couple of years ago the school placed her in a different grade. She has a very nice personality. When she was on my team, she helped me with a lot of work, such as processing exams and inputting grades. Ms Xu and her husband have been away from their posts for several months. They have been seeking treatment in a hospital around the Chinese capital. May she recover soon.

 

The above two seemed not enough to weigh me down. Towards the end of April, my mother reported insomnia. Then anxiety beset her. I could not believe it. The disease that had haunted her back around 1989 came back. A lot of problems in the family, coupled with her own character, led to her condition back in 1989. That year, I was doing the last term of high school and my brother was only a middle school student. A couple of years later, under father’s care, she recovered completely with medical help.

 

Now my family and my brother’s family have been away from the home village. Most of the time, mother is on her own on the farm. It is a good lifestyle. She has her world, friends and relatives. And her health was excellent, free of all the common problems with senior folk, such as hypertension, heart disease and diabetes. Already 70 she was still active around the fields. The physical work did good to her.

 

I am still figuring out the cause of the return of her disease. For some time, the drugs the docs prescribed were not strong enough to put her condition under control. She attempted suicide twice, which hurt my brother and me beyond measure. Thank Goodness, after months of medication she has almost recovered. Now she is out and about almost as normal. When she was ill, she was pessimism incarnate. Now she sounds upbeat when I chat with her.

 

What happened to my two colleagues and my mother has helped to make me wiser. All points to the fact that nothing lasts forever in the world. At a tender age, I thought there was a lot for me to achieve since I was still 20ish or 30ish. Now life has taken on a meaning of urgency. The mission in my mind has to be accomplished through careful planning and rigorous implementation. No one could tell whether the vehicle will still be road worthy before the destination is reached.

 

Professor Fu, the above are not my worst experiences of the last year. Reading the following would make your heat miss a beat. Before my brother broke the news to me towards the end of December, he prepared me for it.

 

Around Christmas, a guy murdered three members of a family in my home village. It sounded like a crime story but it happened. It was the first ever murder in the history of the small village nestled in the mountains. Most of the families in the village are Wangs. The murderer is from one of the non-Wang families. It was a Sun who killed three Wangs. And the guy was my classmate both in primary school and middle school. Actually he was in my graduation photo posted in the entry titled Zhu Yufen. The very thought of it made my hair stand on end. The killer and his family live in the city too. I have not got a clue about his motivation, but what drove the guy to kill seemed to be debt issues. The guy is now with the police. For your peace of mind, allow me to leave out the graphic details.

 

Life goes on whether it is good or bad. As I said earlier, there were plenty of good things to be happy about in 2017. I think I am mentally prepared for whatever could come up in the New Year, good or bad.

 

If you do not mind, Professor, I would post this mail as one of next week’s blog entries. It would serve as a brief summary of the past year and a reminder to me of, (A) Truth is stranger than fiction, and (B) Nothing lasts forever.

 

Thanks for reading and for your attention to the blog. Good health in the New Year, Professor.

 

Yours,

Shengliver