My mother, Liu Juying

My mother, Liu Juying

Author: Chen Xiaolin

My mother has been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for almost twenty years. Her birthday is the 16th day of the first month of the lunar calendar 1934, and the date of birth on the ID card is January 16, 1934.

My mother's hometown is in Wushenling Village, Wenjia City, Liuyang City, Hunan Province. According to my mother, her family occupied most of the local cloth sales market, and most of the family members at the time of liberation were either merchants, landlords, and rich peasants.

My grandfather first followed his family in Wenjia City to do a cloth business and earn some money. When her mother was very young, her hometown in the mountains was robbed by bandits, who robbed the family of money and kidnapped her grandmother. My grandfather borrowed a lot of money to redeem my grandmother. After that, my grandfather changed his strategy and returned to his hometown to start a merchant business, mainly selling cloth and buying land when he earned money. My grandfather was in good health and diligent, he went from village to village, got up early and returned late, and by the time of liberation, his family had more than 20 acres of land, which had reached the standard of rich peasants.

My grandmother gave birth to eight children, but because of the lack of medical care in the countryside in the old society, she only raised her mother and her eldest sister. At the time of liberation, my mother's eldest sister had already married, and my mother had graduated from junior high school and was preparing to continue her studies. Because of the sudden change in family circumstances, my mother dropped out of school and returned home to follow my grandfather to work as a farmer. At that time, my grandfather was 64 years old, and my mother became my grandfather's right-hand man. After three years of hard work in the fields, she was tempered. But the harsh environment made her have a firm belief that she must leave this mountain village.

Through introduction, my mother met my father who worked in the Liling County Party Committee in early 1953, and received financial support from my father to continue her studies. After graduating from high school, my father studied accounting at the Hunan Provincial School of Finance, so my father suggested that my mother also study accounting. In March 1953, my mother was admitted to the Xiangtan City Joint Accounting Class and obtained her graduation certificate in August 1954.

In accordance with the general line of the national transitional period and the policy of local support for national industrial construction, in March 1953, my father was transferred to the Central and South Branch of the ** Nonferrous Metals Bureau, and was assigned to Yangmeisi Tungsten Mine in Chongyi County, Jiangxi Province, to do accounting work. After graduating from accounting school, my mother also came to Gannan and entered the ** company of Yangmeisi Mining Area in January 1955 and also worked as an accountant.

My younger brother and eldest sister were born in 1955, 1957 and 1959 respectively in Yangmei Temple, Chongyi County. After the mining of tungsten ore in Yangmei Temple, it was merged into the Xiayuan tungsten mine in neighboring Dayu County in 1956, and my father went to work in the tungsten mine and returned home on weekends. In addition, my father suffered from severe tuberculosis in 1956, and we did not spend much time with him at that time.

In October 1960, my father was transferred to the Jiangxi Mining Administration Construction Engineering Company in Nanchang City, which was merged into Jiangxi 721 Mine in September 1961, and my father worked in the mine construction team until his retirement in October 1982.

In June 1963, my mother brought my grandfather and my brother and sister to the 721 Mine, and my mother has been working in the Finance Department (Finance Department) of the Ministry of Mines until her retirement in January 1989.

In January 1965, Xiaomei was born in Liantang, known as the Ministry of Mines.

It was after moving into the 721 Mine that our family lived together for a long time. In June 1963, a few days after arriving at the 721 mine, he moved into the newly completed No. 1 of Building 63 in the West District of Liantang (simple house, with walls of bamboo paste yellow mud), and then moved to the adjacent No. 1 (brick house) of Building 58. In September 1977, he moved to the ancient city and lived at No. 101, Building 7, West District. On April 12, 1984, my father died of illness.

In January 2020, my family moved from the ancient city to live in Jin'an Community in Fuzhou, and was one of the last families to withdraw from the 721 mine.

My mother had "three highs" and severe coronary heart disease before retirement, and after retirement, she taught herself health and medicine knowledge, which not only recuperated her body well, but also taught us a lot of health knowledge, which benefited us a lot.

The mother also enthusiastically took blood pressure and blood sugar for neighbors and acquaintances, and provided them with health guidance. The most amazing thing is that my mother found early nose cancer for a neighbor and suggested that she go to Nanchang Hospital for an examination and surgery in time. Wang Yonghua, the old director of Gucheng Hospital, said that my mother was a health "expert".

Unfortunately, in 2005 my mother developed Alzheimer's disease. The main characteristic of this disease is that it turns back the clock of time for the elderly, from old to small. But our brothers and sisters believe that this is the opportunity and time that our mother has given us to repay her, and we must cherish it. The following is a short article I wrote in September 2020 documenting what we know about Alzheimer's disease.

World Alzheimer's Day is celebrated on September 21 every year, and the disease is commonly known as Alzheimer's disease. Now hear a more elegant and accurate name, which is dementia. After all, the youngest patient of this disease is only in his thirties, and dementia is too demeaning and disrespectful to the patient, and I agree with this statement.

I've heard people say in the past that even the former ** Ronald Reagan in the United States has no cure for this disease. The implication is that ordinary people have no choice but to obey the destiny of heaven. Yesterday, I attended a special lecture on dementia prevention and nursing in Beijing, and learned about the latest progress in dementia prevention and treatment. Over the years, a lot of work has been done in the medical department and many elderly care facilities for the cause of the disease, early intervention, meticulous care, medical care and elderly care, and people no longer have to be helpless in the face of this disease as in the past.

Listening to the lectures of the experts, I felt fortunate in my family. Our mother has been suffering from dementia for 15 years, and from not knowing some of the vegetables she often eats, to now lying in bed for more than 5,000 days and nights, we are also "self-taught". Our approach is very similar to what the experts say, except that the experts are more organized and professional.

We have four brothers and sisters in our family, and we have enough labor, and our younger brothers and sisters take turns to take care of them, and my mother has never left anyone. We also have enough filial piety to let our mother live her old age as well as possible. We are also trying to take a longer time so that we can repay our mother a little bit more for the love she gave us.

Our father is not in good health, and my mother has suffered a lot for the family, and it is the common desire of our brothers and sisters to do our best to repay our mother. We believe that dementia needs the most companionship and care from family members. The mild stage requires communication and understanding, the moderate stage needs companionship and care, and the severe stage needs care and care. As dementia patients behave very differently from ordinary people, caregivers are indispensable for patience, care and love. Nowadays, nursing institutions are very professional and can share the worries of the families of dementia patients, but it is still impossible to give care like family members.

When my mother retired, she was in poor health and was deeply troubled by the "three highs", coronary heart disease, and diabetes. We all supported her to learn health knowledge, and after several years of conditioning, she not only controlled the "three highs", but also became a well-known amateur health knowledge propagandist in the neighborhood. All of these played an important role in slowing down the progression of her disease and preventing other complications.

We're also lucky enough when it comes to medications. When the hospital couldn't prescribe medicine, we bought "Anlishen" in 2006 to control mild and moderate dementia, and in 2010 we bought "memantine" for severe dementia, and we continued to take it without stopping. Now experts say that at present, the best dementia drugs at home and abroad are mainly these two. Domestic similar drugs only entered clinical use at the end of last year. The younger siblings gave a lot to take care of their mother. How many sleepless nights, from feeding food, medicine, water, urinating, bathing, to massaging and turning over, we have achieved "filial piety in front of the bed of a long illness".

On this special day, I would also like to say to the families of people with dementia that it has nothing to do with whether Reagan's disease can be cured or not, we only hope that our loved ones are well. At present, the state attaches great importance to the health of the people, and there are more institutions involved in the prevention and care of dementia, and there are more methods, and the conditions are better. Early prevention, timely medication, meticulous care, and families without manpower and energy can also entrust services to specialized agencies, and dementia will no longer be so terrible.

With the study of pathogenesis and the development of medical technologies such as genetic intervention, I believe that the time is not far off for mankind to overcome the difficult disease of dementia. On this special day, I feel that it is very meaningful to participate in this special lecture.

After my mother suffered from Alzheimer's disease, she did not go to a major hospital in another country. In addition to purchasing our own special medicines, we all seek help from our doctors at 721 Hospital. Director Feng Shuiqing, Director Chen Bin, President Zhan Huichun, and President Chen Guilong of the hospital are all very concerned about their mother's illness and have provided medical services for her for a long time. The mother had difficulty moving, so they came to the doctor to prescribe medicines, injections, and make recommendations. It is with their help that we have overcome one difficulty after another to get to where we are today.

On this special day, we brothers and sisters would like to express our deep gratitude to them! At the same time, I would also like to express my gratitude to the leaders, colleagues, neighbors, and friends who care about our mothers!

Looking back, we overcame many difficulties and accompanied our mother to the age of 90! We deeply feel the tenacity of life and the greatness of family affection! Our brothers and sisters will continue to be with our mothers and continue our warmth, day and night, month and month, year after year!

My father's name is Chen Qianfei, and his work unit is the 721 Mine Construction Team; My mother's name is Liu Juying, and her work unit is the Finance Department of 721 Mine.

It was written on the 16th day of the first month of 224.