"24 to the groom and 85 to the bride": What is the story behind the photo of an unequal marriage, which was ridiculed by social networks

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Today, you will not surprise anyone with reports of a big difference in the age of the spouses, but it was this series of pictures from China that for some reason touched netizens. Text blocks under the photo inform that the young man in the photographs is 24 years old, and the woman is 85. This is true, but everything else turned out to be a lie. In fact, the story of the "bride and groom" can make you cry.

Granny Tang is now 85 years old. For almost half of her life, since the 80s, she has been saving children. The fact is that one of the results of China's tough demographic policy is a huge number of abandoned babies. After the country began to implement the motto "One family - one child", the situation in rural areas has escalated. Having, in fact, only one chance to get an heir, parents have learned to "get rid" of those newborns who, for some reason, seemed to them "unsuccessful" - with minor deviations, sick or simply the wrong sex.

The fact that millions of newborn girls have suffered from the desire to have a boy in China is no longer a secret - the country even recorded an imbalance between the number of men and women. If it was not possible to have an abortion on time “on the basis of gender,” then the unwanted babies were often simply abandoned, and it was precisely such and such babies that Tang began to pick up.

When the woman first brought home the newborn, her husband was extremely surprised - five of their offspring were growing up in the family (born before the prohibitions), and there was never any extra money, but he did not argue with his wife. Tang continued to bring children and nursed them even in very bad cases. In fact, dozens of babies have passed through the kind hands of this woman. Most she nursed and gave up for adoption or guardianship, but some, the weakest, she kept for good.

So a family from Jiangxi province raised six more foster children. Of course, life was hard. To feed themselves, everyone worked together in the garden. The 24-year-old handsome Zhang, who is in the photographs next to Tang's grandmother, is one of her adoptive parents. Today it is hard to believe that a young and healthy young man was once simply thrown out into the street. He was probably born weak, and his parents were afraid that they would receive a sick heir. Or maybe the child turned out to be the second or third, and the family was forced to abandon him in order not to pay huge fines.

Tang somehow managed to get around the administrative prohibitions, and thanks to her personal "orphanage", many children were given the right to life. They all called their savior and her husband "grandmother" and "grandfather." In recent years, as the Chinese authorities softened their dire demographic experiments, the Tang family began to receive help from other people and organizations. Thus, the local fire service took over the patronage of the "grandmother with many children". Thanks to their help, Zhang was able to graduate from school and choose a university for himself. The boy decided to thank those people who helped him and decided to become a firefighter too. - he explained.

The young man is doing well today. The service turned out to be difficult, but he copes and even received the first awards. Despite being busy, Zhang regularly visits foster parents. In May 2020, he decided to please Tang and arranged a surprise for her. A woman who gave all her best years caring for others never asked for anything for herself. Life did not spoil her. Tang once told her adopted son that she did not even have a chance to try on a wedding dress - in her youth there was no time for that. The young man decided to fix it.

Zhang bought the most beautiful wedding outfit for his grandmother and arranged a photo shoot for his adoptive parents. Unfortunately, husband Tang could not come to the shooting on the appointed day - his age took its toll, but the holiday still took place. The guy put on his dress uniform and took a picture with his grandmother himself, so that she would not be upset. Both were very pleased with the resulting photos., - Zhang told about the old woman who replaced his mother.

Today, a lot is changing in the world, already in the distant past there are such "signs of their time" as Tractor girls, fighting sparrows and birth control, which can be told about by Chinese posters