Grandpa Lee, Chih-Shin
Name¡G Lee, Chih-Shin
Origin of ancestors ¡G Que-Shan County , He-Nan Province,China
Age¡G 79
Occupation¡G Retired
 

¡§You are the luckiest generation. There is no war, and the life is abundant. You need to cherish what you have. Unlike me, the prime time of my life was in wars and being a refugee. My generation had too much hard time.¡¨

 

On the afternoon of one raining weekend, we came to this ¡§retired house¡¨, which is the dormitory for veterans. From the entrance of the ¡§retired house¡¨, we can realize that this was a barrack for Nei-Pu Camp. Since the troops moved away, the house is offered for the honor soldiers who have no place to stay.

The first thing you can see is a vacant lot when you entered the retired house. This lot should be the place when all troops gather together. Around this lot, there are some partitions. Each partition is divided into several rooms. Each room belongs to one family. Those houses are old and shabby. Except all those houses, there are a public restroom, a bathing house, a barber shop, a small grocery store, and an activity center for everyone to do some activities, such as watching news, playing chess and chatting. This style of the retired house is the typical barrack in twenty or thirty years ago.

After passing some houses, we came to the house of Grandpa Lee, who is the one we had interview with. The size of Grandpa Lee's house is about 33 square meters. In the house, there are a bed, a closet, a refrigerator, a dinning table and some chairs. After we, group of eight people, came into the house, the house seems pretty small and crowd. The kitchen is located in a small partition which is separated outside of the house. Grandpa Lee is required to use the public bathroom and the restroom which are fifty meters away from his house.

Grandpa Lee is from He-Nan Province and was born on 1926. He is the only child in the family. When he was eighteen years old, he joined the civil war in China ; he stopped his education and became a soldier. When he was in the fight in HsuChow, he was injured. He went to NanJing via a flight and took trains to WuHu . After came to WuHu Hospital , he had an operation to remove the bullet in his body. Since then, Grandpa Lee still has a long and deep scar on his leg. After taking a rest, when he was just able to walk, because of communist, they had to retreat and move to JiangXi , NanChang , SuChow , and GuangChow. He was stayed in the house of his cousin and his foster mother.

 
narrow lanes with long houses, typical military camp model
 
Grandpa Lee was sad and sighed with emotion when talking about the old days
 
Grandpa Lee¡¦s home was very crowed when we visited him
 
Grandpa Lee showed us the long and deep scar on his leg
On 1949, he retreated to HaiNan island, on 1950, he moved to Taiwan .

Grandpa Lee said in sorrow, ¡§During these six years, this was his prime time. However, I fought with communist everyday or I followed the troops traveling around. I did not have any quiet and settled life.

Grandpa Lee was camped in FengShan, Kousiung when he came Taiwan . After that, he moved to Taichung and Tainan . Finally, he moved to Taipei and worked as a driver in automobile join in the head quarter of the army. For thirty-two years, he served in the army.

Grandpa Lee is married when he was young. His family and his children are in his hometown. When it is legal to visit relatives in China , he goes back to the mainland of China each year. We were curious and asked Grandpa Lee that ¡§why doesn't he move back to China since his family are there?¡¨ Grandpa Lee was filled with tears and said, ¡§I am a soldier. Where my country is, I should be there. It is ok to go back and visit but I should not live there.¡¨

At that moment, we did not how what could we tell him to comfort him.

Grandpa Lee stared at us and said, ¡§You are the luckiest generation. There is no war, and the life is abundant. You need to cherish what you have. Unlike me, the prime time of my life was in wars and being a refugee. My generation had too much hard time.¡¨

Our conversation with Grandpa Lee was ended in sorrow. Even though he has a strong ascent when he talks, we could feel Grandpa Lee's love for our country and how he expects to us. His conversation is worth for us to think deeply.

 
     

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