]I don't regard myself as being over-sentimental but , last night I saw a programme on Chinese T.V [English Channel 9 ]which nearly opened the floodgates. Well , at least the old eyes were a bit wet.
It was a documentary about a lovely old lady of 82 , who had been a widow for 56 years. We saw a wedding photograph of her and her late husband and they were certainly a handsome/beautiful couple. More than that . they both had eyes that signified compassion , intelligence and dignity.
They were married in 1946 and times were difficult and dangerous-------between the end of the War and the Revolution------a time of bitter Civil War between the Koumanting and the communist Red Army.They were incredibly poor when they married . His friends had had to lend him a decent shirt and the night before she had used bulldog clips to try and make her hair look wavy.
They had one child , a boy , born in 1948.Although they were both foreign language teachers , their "income " was 60kgs. of rice per month. Actually , they didn't receive the rice , just a coupon to get the rice if there was any.
They were both , "underground " workers for the Red Army and allowed their house to be used as a ,"safe " house .
They were betrayed and the husband was arrested , together with 5 others , one of them , a woman . They were horribly tortured ;- wrists and ankles tied together round their backs , strung up and beaten ; red hot branding irons and red hot needles burnt sensitive parts of their bodies -----and finally they were buried alive.
The old lady carried on the best she could , teaching and mourning her husband. She was now 82 and said ,
" I'm not afraid of death but I want to be buried with him "
The problem was no-one knew where the graves were and at the end of the programme they hadn't found them..
She was a wonderful person to interview and what made me , "fill up" was , in a quavering little voice she sang an English song her husband had once sung to her to cheer her up.
" You are my sunshine , my only sunshine........."
The programme hit just the right note......no histrionics , no gilding the lily .......just a simple old woman telling us her story--------and what a story !f

Oh. My. God. Poor woman! Hearing something like this should make us all realize how very good we have it. God bless this poor lady. I sincerely hope she gets her wish and is buried with her husband when the time comes.

:) Sierra

Yeah , Sierra , you can understand how painful it was to watch.
What made the whole thing more poignant was that the old lady seemed so lacking in self-pity.
The government certainly hadn't , "spoiled " her for her help during the Civil War or her husband's bravery , keeping silent under dreadfull torture.
She lived in a small apartment on her own and had had to work as a foreign language teacher all her life , up to retirement.
Two things , I think , the government had done for her :-she had a small , passport -sized photograph of their wedding day and the State had provided experts to enlarge it in the best possible way ; also they'd financed the trip to Beijing that I mentioned and organised the re-union with her husband's old friends.
They couldn't pin-point where the 6 bodies had been buried alive as the Koumanting had fled , taking the details with them. The old lady was seen standing where she THOUGHT they might be and , "spoke " her thoughts out-------another heart-rending scene.
All through the programme you kept thinking what a great couple they would have made if life had been different. Incidentally , the executions of the six happened only a very short time before the city where they lived was taken over by the Communists.