Awkward Love

My friend got married. His mother carried two bags of cotton from the countryside by bus and train to his city. After arriving at the city, there was still a long way to his house without any bus passing by the house. His mother walked to his home breathlessly for 40 minutes without taking a taxi in order to save money.

My friend felt bitter as well as funny as his mother’s deeds. He pointed to the cashmere（羊绒） and silk quilts and said, “So long as you have money, you can buy anything in the supermarket. There is no need for you to carry so much cotton here in such a long way.”

But his mother insisted and said, “The cotton of this year is light and warmth-keeping. Have a try and you will know!”

Maybe every parent is the same, caring for their children with relentless（无情的，不间断的） love without caring about whether they know or like it.

This early spring, I went to visit my grandmother. We had dry beans stew（炖汤） , eggplant salad bar, sauce radish for our dinner, all of which were dried by my grandmother last autumn and tasted wonderful. I loved the dishes to my heart’s content and could not help praising them again and again.

After a few days, my grandmother, who seldom visited us, came to my home and unpacked her bag, smilingly taking out bags of dried eggplants, dried beans and dried vegetable. She told me that I left so hastily last time that she forgot to give me some of these foods, so she took this chance to bring me what I liked.

I was speechless at that time. Due to my casual compliment（恭维，称赞） on her food, my grandmother , a nearly 70-year-old lady, by taking three buses from the west of the city to the east, came to my home with the food I liked. But she was bus-sick in life and even seldom went strolling（消闲散步的） in the street.

My pretty girlfriend had a failed marriage in the past. After divorce, her parents shed the deepest protection and care to her by helping her attend to the child and offering financial aids. Her parents’love made her pull herself together and forgot the man who had hurt her before.

Nonetheless, her father, an honest and upright old man, after hearing his ex-son-in-law got promoted in his company, felt terrifically irritated（恼怒的） and went to his company to question his boss why a philandering（调情的） man with corrupt conducts could get promoted. The whole office fell into a mess immediately and many staff just watched on the sidelines（当旁观者） . Some people even whispered lightly, "It is a new era now and the relationship between men and women is very open. No one would care about that any more!"

The old man stood silently in the office with his hands shivering and eyes tearing.

That night, my girlfriend cried heavily in front of me. I asked her whether it was her father’s stupid deeds that made her feel humiliated. But she said that she felt guilty for her dad and that though the rest of the whole world betrayed her, her old father would still back her up and help her get the justice she deserved, just as when she was young and the neighboring boy grabbed her ball, her father would get it back for her. However, this changed world was no longer the stage for her old father and his deeds became funnily obsolete（废弃的） . No one managed to see the real and ever-lasting love to his daughter behind his seemingly rude behaviors.

Now we have grown up, so much so that we could support our family and have our own children. But in our parents’ heart, they are still worried that we do not have sufficient quilts and dried vegetables. They would not feel troubled to bring all these to us regardless of long tough journey. They even would not like us to suffer a bit and try all means to protect us without caring about whether what they do is awkward（尴尬的，笨拙的） and stupid or not.

Who in the world would love us so deeply and relentlessly without asking for any repay? Only our parents!