With his younger brother gone, 78-year-old Zhang Ruian is mostly empty-hearted.
At the dining table in the early morning, as usual, she subconsciously wanted to serve a bowl of rice to her brother first. When she turned around, the seat was empty, and she came to her senses: her brother was gone. Tears blurred vision.
In the past 34 years, Zhang Ruian often worried about what her brother, who suffered from epilepsy and had the mind of a child, would do if she passed away first. Now, my brother is gone first. Sitting in her brother's room, she felt in a trance. The time the siblings spent together day and night became clearer, and a voice rang in her ears, "Sister! I'm back!"
Caption: A photo of siblings.
"Sister! Where are you going?"
Zhang Ruian was born in Huangpu District, Shanghai. He is the second eldest son in his family. He has an elder brother who is 7 years old. The younger brother has been very timid since he was a child, and loves to cling to her the most. Whenever he sees Zhang Ruian going out, his younger brother always shouts: "Sister, sister! Where are you going?" The younger brother is like her little tail.
When my younger brother was 6 years old, he got meningitis. In the hospital, Zhang Ruian heard the doctor ask his father: "Should we save him? If he is rescued, his brain may be bad." Zhang Ruian's heart tightened suddenly. "Save!" the father said firmly.
The younger brother's life was saved, but his "brain is bad", he cannot communicate normally, he can only laugh naively, and he also suffers from epilepsy. Zhang Ruian taught him how to read a clock and recognize money many times, but his younger brother forgot what he learned. Once, a neighbor's child teased her, "You have a fool in your family." Zhang Ruian, who was usually kind, was so angry that she trembled all over. She covered her head and cried when she got home. Her father told her: "There is nothing we can do about my brother's illness. No matter what others say, we cannot look down on him."
When he was 17 years old, Zhang Ruian went to Xinjiang to support the border area, where he got married and started a business, and gave birth to two sons. Thousands of miles away, her brother is always the deepest concern in her heart. The younger brother worked some manual labor in a factory in an alley, got married and divorced, and had no children. Later, I fell ill every three days, and it became difficult to continue working.
When the younger brother was 37 years old, his father died. My mother, who had always been a housewife, panicked and wrote to Zhang Ruian. After Zhang Ruian discussed it with his wife, he wrote back: "Mom, bring my brother to Xinjiang."
“The conditions were really hard at the time, but there was always something for them to eat,” Zhang Ruian recalled. In Xinjiang, my younger brother and mother have no jobs, and my younger brother relies on his elder brother to regularly send him medicine from Shanghai. The family relied on the couple's meager salary to support themselves. After their sons were admitted to college, life became even tighter. In addition to going to work, Zhang Ruian also worked odd jobs here and there. The younger brother is still like what he did when he was a child. He follows his sister wherever she goes, planting sunflowers and watering the vegetable fields together. My younger brother can't cook, so Zhang Ruian prepares three meals day after day, and the first bowl of rice always belongs to his younger brother.
Later, my mother also left. The eldest sister is like a mother, Zhang Ruian has taken over all the responsibilities.
Caption: Old photos on your phone freeze memories.
"Sister takes you home"
When his younger brother was 43 years old, 50-year-old Zhang Ruian retired. The sons had married in Shanghai and hoped that their parents would return to Shanghai. Zhang Ruian and his wife decided to bring their younger brother back. Zhang Ruian asked his younger brother: "Do you still remember our home in Shanghai? My sister will take you home." His younger brother grinned: "My home is in Shanghai, remember."
My home in Shanghai is an old house of 30 square meters left by my parents. Previously, the eldest brother was considerate of his sister's efforts and left his parents' house to her. After returning to Shanghai, Zhang Ruian, his wife, and his brother huddled in this room together. After the house was demolished a few years later, the couple discussed using the compensation money to buy a new house in Songjiang.
"Songjiang has a good environment and cheap housing prices, making it suitable for elderly care," Zhang Ruian said. The sons hope that they will stay in the city so that they can take care of her more easily, and they will spend their respective demolition funds to buy a house for her. But she and her lover still wanted to be strong and did not want to cause trouble to the children, so they decided to come to Songjiang. Before viewing the house, her youngest son asked her what her requirements were for the new house. She said, "If you want two bedrooms, leave one room for your uncle." Finally, she chose a two-bedroom apartment on the first floor in Tianhong No. 4 Village, with both bedrooms facing south, and she lives there until now.
After working in Xinjiang for many years, Zhang Ruian suffered from a series of diseases: rheumatism, lumbar disc herniation, bone hyperplasia… The finger joints have been deformed. In recent years, as I get older, I cannot walk without crutches and rely on a wheelchair when going out. My wife is also in her nineties, has a bad heart, and has inconvenient legs and feet.
Sometimes when she was busy in the kitchen, her younger brother came over and said, "Sister, where are my socks?" "Go and look for them in your room." After a while, the younger brother came over again and said, "Sister, where are my shoes?" Zhang Ruian was upset by the question and couldn't help but raise his voice: "How could I know about your shoes?" Finally, Zhang Ruian sighed and went to help him find them. Sometimes she wanted her younger brother to help mop the floor, but he muttered: "I mopped it yesterday." She got angry and said, "Well, you had dinner yesterday, do you want to eat today?" Seeing her lose her temper, her husband always tried to persuade her: "Why are you yelling at him? He is just a child." Zhang Ruian could only say helplessly: "I'm exhausted."
There are times when my younger brother does something stupid, such as breaking hot water bottles and light bulbs at home. Zhang Ruian was so angry: "If you don't obey me, I'll send you out." Her younger brother immediately came to her and said, "Sister, I'm obedient." Her heart suddenly softened again. My younger brother can't stay at home and likes to go out. Outside, he sometimes stares at others, which makes people disgusted. Zhang Ruian always has to make others smile. My younger brother doesn't look at the road when he walks, and he will fall over on flat ground. In short, Zhang Ruian has endless worries.
Her son and daughter-in-law asked her to hire a nanny many times, but she refused: "I can still move, so I won't spend that money." The children were very filial. During her two hospitalizations for surgery, the children took their uncle over and took good care of her, making her feel at ease in the hospital. Afraid that their uncle would get lost, they bought two locators and asked him to wear them. At the same time, they installed an app on their mother's phone so they could check his location at any time.
The surprise came anyway. One day a few years ago, my younger brother went out at noon and didn't come home until dark. Only then did Zhang Ruian realize that the locator was left at home, and she and her husband called the police. Zhang Ruian stayed up all night, and for the next few days, he stayed at the window every day, shouting: "Ruiyang (brother's name), come back soon…" On the sixth day, the police found his brother in Maogang. The younger son immediately drove his uncle back. As soon as his younger brother walked in, Zhang Ruian burst into tears – his younger brother was skinny and skinny. "Why are you so thin? Have you eaten these days?" "I haven't eaten. I drank water." Zhang Rui comforted his brother's back, blaming himself.
Caption: Zhang Ruian takes his younger brother to participate in community activities.
"What should I do, brother?"
Every Spring Festival, my sons would take the three of them to the city to celebrate the New Year. Her two sons left her when they were 18 years old, and her younger brother is still with her at the age of 70. Sometimes Zhang Ruian couldn't help but worry: "What will happen to my brother after I die?" The children comforted her: "We are still there, Mom, don't worry." Zhang Ruian shook his head: "You still have children and parents to support, so we can't drag you down…" The children said, "It really doesn't work. There is a nursing home. Hire a nanny for your uncle. Don't worry, we will find a solution by then."
After the Spring Festival in 2025, Zhang Ruian discovered that his younger brother's memory was declining rapidly. He would go to the wrong bedroom, mistake the kitchen for the bathroom, and sometimes fall two or three times a day, but fortunately he was fine.
One day after winter, Zhang Ruian and his wife called the police again when his brother went out to take out the garbage and did not return for several hours. My wife drove an electric wheelchair and went to the police station with her brother's ID card. She and the police checked the public video. After searching for more than an hour, they couldn't find him. The police drove to the street to look for him, and finally found his brother on Wenxiang Road and sent him home. It turned out that after my brother threw away the garbage, he couldn't remember where his home was. Afterwards, Zhang Ruian customized a banner and sent it to the police station to express his gratitude.
His younger brother got into trouble one after another, and Zhang Ruian realized that his younger brother, who was already in his seventies, was getting old. This worried her. In one year, she lost more than 20 pounds.
In the early morning of January 7, 2026, Zhang Ruian called his brother to get up, but his brother didn't answer. She suddenly remembered that her brother had fallen at home the day before and quickly called an ambulance. After the doctor diagnosed her, he asked her: "There is blood in the brain, can we save it?" Zhang Ruian blurted out: "Save!" without hesitation, just like his father back then. Zhang Ruian's two sons rushed to Songjiang after hearing the news. They immediately purchased hospital supplies and hired nurses.
My brother was transferred to the intensive care unit after surgery. Zhang Ruian was unable to visit and was restless at home. Knowing that she was anxious, her youngest son rushed to the hospital from Minhang every day to "broadcast" her condition. On January 16, the critical illness notification came, and on the same day, my brother passed away.
The next day, Zhang Ruian was hospitalized for high blood pressure and was discharged a week later.
"Sister! I'm back!"
When the reporter came to visit, Zhang Ruian put on his reading glasses and opened the photo album on his mobile phone: "This is my younger brother and I participating in activities in the community. He watched me playing cards and having fun, and he was laughing next to me." "This is my wife accompanying my younger brother to participate in the game." "This is a family photo, and the one standing in the middle is my younger brother."… Zhang Ruian's fingers gently stroked the screen.
Zhang Ruian didn't feel relieved after her brother left, because she never regarded her brother as a burden. Now, she was sitting at home, and in a daze, the familiar call sounded in her ears again – "Sister! I'm back!" She subconsciously looked at the door. In the past, her brother would shout like this every time he entered the door, with a loud voice and child-like joy. But now, my brother will never push in the door again.
Pan Yan, secretary of the party branch in the residential area, remembers clearly: her sister was sitting in a wheelchair, and her younger brother, who was cleanly dressed, was pushing her behind. Sometimes the elder sister turns around and says something, and the younger brother smiles innocently. What touched Pan Yan even more was that Zhang Ruian always had an open-minded tenacity and never complained. Feng Guihua, president of the Rongmei Community Elderly Association, also expressed emotion: "This sister is amazing! For decades, she has taken care of her younger brother like a parent taking care of their children. She is very responsible. When my sister is in a wheelchair, my younger brother becomes the person pushing the wheelchair. The sister and brother support each other throughout their lives."
Caption: Zhang Ruian shows a photo with his younger brother.
Before the Spring Festival, Pan Yan visited the old man's house as usual, held the old man's hand and said: "Aunt Zhang, you and your uncle should take care. If you have any difficulties, we will always go to the neighborhood committee. We are here." Zhang Ruian's eyes turned red: "The community has been so good to us! I have to live a good life to be worthy of everyone's concern." She muttered: The neighborhood committee helped me get my disability certificate. The wheelchair and toilet were given by the community; after not participating in several community activities since the beginning of last spring, the neighborhood committee staff called to inquire about the situation; the disabled passage at the corridor door was repaired by Secretary Pan in contact with a caring enterprise… "Every time I go out in a wheelchair, I think of these warmth." Zhang Ruian said gratefully.
In her bedroom, there is a photo of her and her brother before the Spring Festival in 2024. Both siblings were wearing bright red Chinese vests, holding red Chinese knots in their hands, and smiling at the camera. "The community sent someone to take the photos for free," Zhang Ruian looked at the photos and said softly, "How nice."
