Xu Zhaoxiang: a good wife who has supported a hard family with weak shoulders for 29 years (picture)

Source: Jiangsu Civilization Network March 2022

Story: 29 years of supporting a good wife in a difficult family with weak shoulders

Introduction: Xu Zhaoxiang, female, born in 1964, is a resident of Xindun Community, Xinhe Street, Yannan High tech Zone, Yancheng City. In 1993, Xu Zhaoxiang's husband suffered from ankylosing spondylitis. With the development of the disease, his husband gradually became stiff and painful. Xu Zhaoxiang took her husband everywhere to seek medical advice and try various treatments, massaging, turning over and scrubbing her husband several times a day. She made a living by sewing clothes, raised her son, and paid for medicine. She often fell asleep when she stepped on the sewing machine because of overwork. With her unremitting efforts, her husband miraculously stood up in January 2019, and now his health is gradually improving.

Xu Zhaoxiang, female, born in May 1964, is a resident of Xindun Community, Xinhe Street, Yannan High tech Zone, Yancheng City. For 29 years, she took care of her husband, who was stiff due to ankylosing spondylitis. Xu Zhaoxiang did not shrink from the reality of her predicament and the high medical fees she owed for seeking medical treatment everywhere. She takes good care of her sick husband, serves her bedridden parents in law, and raises her young son. She lives on a sewing machine. She often sleeps on the sewing machine because of her daily work. Her efforts paid off. With her unremitting efforts, her husband miraculously stood up 29 years later. Xu Zhaoxiang has been successively rated as "the most beautiful woman", "the good person in Yancheng" and "the moral model in Yancheng", and her deeds have been publicized and reported by provincial media such as Xinhua Daily, Zhongjiang.com, Intersection, and the Elderly Weekly.

Support a family with love

Twenty nine years ago, Xu Zhaoxiang had a happy and prosperous family. Her husband, Li Zhengbiao, worked as a salesperson in a supply and marketing cooperative, with a fixed salary. Xu Zhaoxiang runs a sewing shop at home. He is clever and skillful, and his business is booming. The 6-year-old son is smart and cute, and the family is extremely happy. The weather was unpredictable. In 1993, her husband suddenly felt pain all over his body, which was getting worse and worse. Looking at her painful husband, young children and parents in law who had been lying in bed for many years, Xu Zhaoxiang, though helpless, secretly decided that no matter how difficult and bitter the road in the future, she would shoulder the responsibility of this family.

In order to find out the cause of her husband's disease, Xu Zhaoxiang set out to seek medical treatment for her husband, and moved around Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and other places. Finally, in 2000, Li Zhengbiao, 39, was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis complicated with vitiligo in Shanghai. With the development of his illness, Li Zhengbiao's lower limbs gradually lost consciousness, and his whole body became stiff. The pain became more and more serious day by day, and the nursing task became more and more difficult.

In January 2008, late at night with heavy snow, Xu Zhaoxiang, who had just given her husband a 3-hour massage, was dragging her tired body to rest. Unexpectedly, as soon as she closed her eyes, her husband's painful cry made her wake up immediately, and she could not put on her coat. Xu Zhaoxiang immediately got up and lifted her husband's legs to relieve his pain. He wanted to call a doctor, but he couldn't let go. Fortunately, the neighbor heard Li Zhengbiao's cry and came to check and help him call a doctor. Xu Zhaoxiang, who had no time to wear cotton padded clothes, just held her husband's stiff legs for infusion and stood for more than 4 hours in a cold night.

You are here, home is here

Li Zhengbiao was so distressed by his illness that he didn't want to be a burden on his wife. He thought of suicide countless times. He had to bear the pain several times to divorce her and ask her to remarry... Every time Xu Zhaoxiang said, "I am gone, what will you do? If you are gone, what will I do? You are here, home is here."

Most of the joints of the husband's body are stiff after he falls ill, and Xu Zhaoxiang needs to take care of him in daily life. As long as there are ways to treat her husband, she will try: when she heard that there is a lying down exercise that can relieve muscle stiffness, Xu Zhaoxiang bought a recorder and came back to learn and exercise with her husband; Hearing that "apitherapy" could cure her husband's disease, Xu Zhaoxiang bought a box of bees. Even though she was stung by bees and was red and swollen all over, only her mouth and fingers could move, she did not give up the treatment.

In order to take care of her husband, Xu Zhaoxiang set up a small compartment at the bottom of her sewing shop to arrange her husband in it. During the day, Xu Zhaoxiang sewed clothes for customers in front. Whenever there was any movement, she immediately put down her work and ran into the back room to check. Under her careful care, 29 years later, her husband miraculously stood up.

Interpreting "Filial Piety" and "Love"

Xu Hanfang, a neighbor of Xu Zhaoxiang and the former head of Xinyi Community, said: "People say that the husband and wife were birds in the same forest, and they flew separately in the face of disaster. But Xu Zhaoxiang has used 29 years of persistence to show us the true love in the world. It is really great for her to support such a family with a sewing machine. She is a good wife, daughter-in-law and resident."

In order to cure her husband, support the elderly and provide for children to study, Xu Zhaoxiang owes a lot of debt. After finishing the sewing shop in the daytime, she was busy with housework and took good care of the family. She was dizzy all day and had to get up from time to time at night to serve her husband. In order to prevent her husband from lying in bed for a long time and getting bedsores, Xu Zhaoxiang helped her husband turn over and wash and change frequently every day, and also insisted on massaging his limbs for 2-3 hours. Excessive fatigue caused Xu Zhaoxiang to fall asleep when he often stepped on the sewing machine. Her father-in-law had suffered from heart disease for seven years and was seriously ill for more than three years. Xu Zhaoxiang asked her father-in-law to eat and live in her home, which was convenient for taking care of. He ate three meals a day, served tea and medicine, washed clothes and cooked meals, without any complaints. Before his death, his father-in-law, who was in his 90s, said in tears, "The most sorry thing for our family in this life is our daughter-in-law Zhaoxiang."

Xu Zhaoxiang has guarded the great love of the world with perseverance and determination for 29 years without regret. Now she has three generations together and is happy. Xu Zhaoxiang has been successively rated as "the most beautiful woman in Yancheng City", "the model of a hundred star woman with ten lines of self-improvement around Yancheng City", "the good person in Yancheng City" and "the moral model in Yancheng City".