Rewritten article:
Stepmother. 
Since the death of his mother, his father seems to have lost the direction of his life. He lived a carefree life under his mother's meticulous care, and he never had to worry about housework. However, on September 2, 1959, my mother left us with asthma, at the age of 53. After losing his mother, his father's life became extremely difficult.
It wasn't until 1960, after my wife and I got married, that he came home to visit my father during the Spring Festival, and he smiled again. When we went home, he used the national food stamps to buy white flour and rice from Beijing, while he himself could only bring back a few small sweet potatoes or wowotou from the canteen. We felt sorry for him and let him eat well, but he always pushed and finally came back after eating in the cafeteria. The house was a mess, the house was full of dust, and the blades had never been touched. We cleaned it up for him and wanted to create a comfortable living environment for him.
In 1961, when I was in college in Beijing, I went home to visit my father during the Dragon Boat Festival. At that time, the cafeteria had been disbanded, and he cooked and ate by himself. I saw that only the cutting part of the blade was clean, and the rest was dirty. The house was still in shambles. At noon, my aunt invited me to her house for dinner, and my father ate a few cold rice dumplings. I looked at him with mixed feelings. At that time, his family and neighbors were looking for a wife for him, hoping that he would have a companion to take care of him. Eventually, someone introduced him to a Kang who was two years older than him. Although my father did not agree at first, he agreed with everyone's persuasion.
Kang is a person who pays attention to the quality of life, her family was wealthy in her early years, she often went to the opera garden to watch plays, and she also knew a lot of operas. She is also very particular about dressing and always buys good cosmetics and skincare products. However, the changing situation has changed her life dramatically. After her husband died, she lived with her nephews, but they did not get along. So, she decided to get married, and after a lot of talk, she came to my father's side.
Kang's arrival has given the home a new look. Not only did she keep the house in order, but she also rejuvenated my father. Her cooking skills are also very good, especially good at making traditional delicacies such as noodles and pushing nests, rubbing fish roe, and pinching slots. Her noodle nests are arranged neatly and beautifully like honeycombs, and with the soup made from mushrooms, the taste is simply beautiful. She is also very kind and always smiling, which makes us feel very relatable.
During the Spring Festival of 1964, we went home for the Chinese New Year and sent our children back to our hometown for Kang's to help take care of them. At that time, the child was still young, and he had to hold on to the door frame to enter the house when he went to bed at night. When we left, the child held our thighs and did not spread them, and we stuffed her to Kang with tears in our eyes. In those years, we have been relying on them to help take care of the children, and we are very grateful.
In August 1965, after graduating from university, we went back to our hometown to visit them. Seeing that the three of them are living well, we are also relieved. When we left, the father carried the child and sent us out of the village. The child cried and wanted to come with us, and we walked away. Later, my father wrote to me: "I picked a pear from the tree for her, and she didn't cry when she ate it." This sentence made me feel the father's deep love and helplessness for his child.
In May 1967, when I was working at a pesticide factory in Tianjin, I wrote to my father asking if Kang would like to come to Tianjin to wait for my second child. The father wrote back, "She is willing to come." So, Kang took five-year-old Chunping to Tianjin. At that time, it was during the Cultural Revolution, and the factory was fighting bulls, ghosts, snakes, and gods, and the scene of parade in the street scared Chunping to tears. Despite this, Kang's did his best to take care of me and my children and made us feel at home.