Mother's Life

媽媽大概在民國九年在河北省遵化縣生。生日恰好是舊曆八月十五中秋節。她的媽媽姚氏是續弦。下面又生了六個弟弟。媽媽是老大。她上面有兩個姐姐。大姐嫁了好丈夫﹐從來不回娘家。二姐嫁給一個沒錢人叫勞國莊的﹐又是老大下面又有很多弟妹﹐每天忙得半死所以有時回娘家清閒一下子。但是媽的媽不是二姐的媽，所以二姐來家裡也沒有甚麼好的招待。

她的媽媽不喜歡她﹐要她做很多的家事。若是媽不聽話就會挨打。北方有一種農作物的桿叫笤帚(音﹕條舟)的。祖母就用這個枝子打媽媽。媽說被按著打屁股。媽說她也不哭﹐也不求饒﹐心想妳能就把我打死吧。

她很聰明﹐小時候書讀的很好﹐常考第一名。但是有時候不許去上學﹐過了一年又去上。加上戰亂和日本人侵略我們﹐她二十多歲來到台灣(1949)什麼文憑也沒有。聽說台北護專招生﹐和朋友就去上。校長夏德珍說妳們能年底考過大考﹐就可以明年繼續念。媽成度夠﹐幾年後終於拿到了唯一的文憑。

我記得她的同班同學有顧翹曾，呂庭芳，段競，李書貞，吳昌南。其中顧翹曾對她最懷念，永遠保持連絡。呂庭芳很忌妒媽有好多自己生的小孩，和媽的關係時好時壞。

畢了業﹐自願分發到嘉義空軍醫院﹐因為大弟夢徵在那兒。不久又調到陽明山的衛生院。在那兒見過蔣家大小,記得我小時後媽有時候會帶全家去後草山玩。

不久遇見爸爸(徐炳堃)﹐結婚住在新生南路三段十九巷五號。隔壁是民社黨的黨部﹐爺爺(徐傅霖)就在那兒當主席。爺爺很喜歡她﹐常常人前人後的稱讚她﹐她也工作努力,只是府中的人事太雜,很難相處的好。

她有時懷疑爸爸已經在大路結過婚，爸不告訴她。後來發現爸往大路上匯錢才知道。

她年輕時很喜歡交個戴帽子的男朋友，所謂戴帽子的，就是軍人或警察。在北方有一位炮兵的，交了一段時間，他調走了。

媽媽的個性很強﹐樣樣事情都要自己的辦法來。有時候當然和人衝突。府中有個叫揚郁英的女人很厲害﹐媽怕那個人會對小孩不利﹐就搬到木柵去住。有時候會回去看看。1958年一月十二日爺爺心臟病去世﹐不久全家又搬回五號。不善良的人把所有的東西都拿走了。說米缸裡一粒米也沒了。連舊報紙也都賣光了。

媽是很怕髒的人。每天洗手﹐腳﹐和洗澡是不能馬虎的。小孩定期的檢查和打預防針都按時的。小時候總覺得太麻煩﹐現在自己身體好﹐很感謝她。

媽的一生都是為了別人。小時候要幫忙帶六個弟弟。 自己有了小孩就盡全力的照顧。任何事對孩子有利的﹐絕不反顧。

在民生東路住的時侯，後面石凳子上總有一隻大黃狗。牠有時後叫，吵到大哥，大哥揚言要一拳把這條狗打死。媽怕他一拳打不死反被狗咬，就開始想辦法，最後用毒老鼠的藥沾在麵包上給牠吃了，一下就死了。

她喜歡我們吃東西。每天很重要的一件事就是吃。多吃比少吃好。 所以我們小孩都長的不矮﹐因為我們家伙食好。但有一次我吃太多餅乾，昏迷了三天。

她在１９６０年代也迷上了凌波，幾部黃梅調電影看了一遍又一遍。有時侯在電影院看一天。最喜歡的是梁祝。

穿﹐戴﹐家用她倒沒有嚴格要求﹐有就好了。這樣的人生很容易。有人說是“內控”。 自己想做什麼就做什麼。快活的很。

她是比較有成見的人，什麼事要照她的辦法幹。所以她和爸爸結婚一拍即合。爸爸什麼家事都不想做，也不會做。媽媽稱他“公子哥兒”就自己做，配合很好。後來她忙了，爸也會幫忙。

她也有忌諱，中年時侯怕得癌症，不願意看“癌”這個字。

她對政治倒是很有興趣，當鄰長很多年，和鄰居相處的都很好。每次投票一定去為國民黨拉票,她當年也很喜歡蔣經國。

她最傷心的事之一是小弟小培１７歲淹死，記得當天事發了，她本來要把屍體先運到家裡放一段時間，再想想辦法。後來她整個晚上都不能睡，幾天都不時會哀叫一聲的。她說她哭了十年，小培也從來不到她的夢中。有時候老爸煩了，叫她到外面去哭，她出去公園的椅子上坐著掉眼淚。

她墮過三次胎，老了以後有時會提起，也很後悔, 爸爸每次都會說 “他們是來投生的，不是來投死的”。

從媽那裡學了很多東西。協助別人是一個大學問，在小的時候在她身邊幫忙，她會不時教導和提示如合幫助。我因此養成了幫忙的習慣，也會幫忙。

也學會做不少麵食。比如說包餃子。從和麵，和餡，醒麵，桿皮，包，煮　和吃　都會。

Mom and immunization

I heard from a classmate that she contracted hepatitus vis needles during immunization. Mom was so careful about us. Thanks mom.

Mom's best friend

Her best was probably Lu阿姨. They came to Taiwan on the same boat and went to nursing school together. 阿姨was jealous of mom's many children. For years, they did not talk. 阿姨 was happy to find out that Dad lost mucho $ in stocks.

Mom and checken soup

When mom just had a baby (do not remember which), father offered to make checken soup for her. Upon first taste, she felt OK. The next meal, she felt that the soup was kind of dark and tasted funny. Dad did not clean the chicken.

Mom is clean

Mom used to make sure that things are clean:

Wash grapes in chemicals.
Can not go barefeet.
Can not go out and eat at food stands.

Mom's Dad

Mom's dad one time played mahjong seven days in a roll. He passed out while going to bathroom eventually.

Mom and son in coma

I was in a coma when I was young, 3 maybe. It lasted three or four days. Mom was there at all times and watching me.

Doc said that I had too many fine cookies.

Mom's services

媽媽已經於昨天告別了,三舅母,治本,仲萱,仲蓉,四樓陳家,湯里長,護士長都來了,下葬時佛光普照.一切都很順利. 12/2/2008

mom changes her age

When mom was reaching 64, retirement was getting near but she did not want to get retired. She asked 吳緯國's father 吳逢祥 (in charge of personnel for government) to have it changed.

He was such a gentleman that he did most of the work. Until the last day, he needed mom's signature. He got his own car with a chauffer to bring mom to get that signature. She became 5 years younger so she worked six more years. She worked until 70.

Mom always said that Mr. Wu died young of asthma and it was such a pity.

mom's bound feet

Her feet were not bound at the beginning. Her grandma complained a lot by saying, "Before the lady enters the room, the huge feet get in first". It bugged mom so one day, she decided to get feet bound.

One has to get feet bent upward. It hurt so much mom gave that up after one day.

mom's village doctor

There was only one Chinese doctor who was blind. He could not heal infection,....

mom's uncle

Mom's dad had a brother but those mem did not get alone well so she rarely saw the uncle.

One day, aunt came by asking her dad to go and see the brother. The brother was dying of an infected tooth. As he was sitting up, much pus gushed down from the wound. He died soon after.

mom's dad died of...

He suffered asthma in China quite a bit. He could not sleep at night so he sat on his bed piled blankets on his body to stay warm.

He did not die of asthma. It was diarrea.

om on ncle4

She said that he did not like to study. When he first got to Taiwan, he stayed with his dad in XinJu. He was supposedly going to high school but he hid his backpack every day and went to the beach.

mom and 梁祝

She loved going to 黃梅調movies. She and I went to see so many, 梁祝, 花木蘭， 血手印， 新陳三五娘， 雙鳳奇緣， 鳳還巢，..

Our favorite one was 梁祝. We probably watched it 500 times.

mom's teeth

Her teeth were good. They were so good that she chewed anything with them including bones, nuts,... Later, she had a bad dentist. Many teeth were not fixed but extracted so she could not chew well any more.

Mom's back

Her back was really hurting when she was in her 60's and an operation was in the works. Brother researched and found that stat. is against an operation. He built a pulling system on her bed and she got better.

mom's mom

Mom's mom did not like mom. Mom said that that her mom often hit her. Mom would not cry. She was just thinking, "If you can beat me to death, do it". She did not go to her mom when the mom was at her final days of fighting liver cancer in Shanghai.

Mom and her age

Mom changed her age to be older to get her first job in nursing. She then changed it to younger to work more years when she was around 65 and had to retire.

Mom and cig.

One time, we were saying the mom did not smoke. She immediately grabbed a cig. and started smoking. (Around 1960)