The Bud of Love

Jim and I have been married for fifteen years. We could be said to be entirely different from each other as regards personality. I loved to chat with others, and I was outgoing and liked to gather with friends; while he was comparatively introvert and loved family life. Be that as it may, we could understand each other and bore the imperfections of each other.

Before the marriage, we were introduced by relatives. The introducer were his parents and my aunt, as a matter of fact my aunt and Jim’s parents were old friends. At that time, Jim’s parents had been settling down in this city for over twenty years, while Jim had been here for just four years.

After Jim and I got married, my mother-in-law had mentioned this story to me and said,

“During those years we lived in rural areas, and it was impossible to find jobs to make a living. When Jim was just about a year old, seeing him being too small, we decided to leave him to be taken care of by relatives in rural areas while we went to the city to find jobs and at the same time they became legitimate residents and settled down there. We originally planned to take him back to live with us as soon as we settled down, but we couldn’t expect that this city passed a law in a short time, which, according to those rules of the Immigration Department provided that illegitimate residents could not get through the border without consent.”

While telling the story, she got a bit agitated and couldn’t hold back her tears. I patted her shoulder to comfort her.

She continued to say “We always feel guilty as well as sorry for him to live alone in rural areas.” Then she took a sip of a cup of tea.

“After we had settled down for some years, though how eager we were to apply for Jim’s entry to the city for reunion, it was until he became twenty that the permit to entry was finally granted.”

I had asked my husband on this matter.

“Have you ever blamed your parents for leaving you in rural areas?”

“When I was small I did, but when I grew older, I understood that during that time which was a hard time they couldn’t do anything but to go out to find chances for their livings, and they had given me subsistence fees. Additionally it was my father’s recommendation to my uncle to hire me to work for him when I went to this city.”

My husband came to this city at the age of twenty, and however, due to the limited education received in rural place, he could not find a better job but followed his uncle, who was running a butcher shop selling chicken, as a butcher as well.

Then four years had passed, Jim’s mother thought it was time for him to have his own family. But the people as butchers were hard to make friends with girls at that time, and generally girls preferred boys working in offices rather than in markets. So she mentioned this to her best friend (my aunt). Jim’s mother praised her son as an upright person with a steady job, and had a small flat (in fact his parents paid part of the purchase price leaving the balance to be paid by installment by Jim), and asked if my aunt had girls to introduce. My aunt thought of me at once, because our ages are about the same – I was just two years younger than him.

My aunt loved me very much and treated me as her daughter, seeing me as a lovely girl and would be a good wife, she decided to introduce Jim to me. When I was at primary school, my father passed away in an accident, leaving my mother, me and my two younger brothers. My father had bought a house in the earlier days before the accident, and his company had given us a sum of pension after his death. My uncle and aunt had also given us financial assistance periodically, so we could afford a simple life. My family had a close and harmonious relationship with them.

During that period I was working as a clerk in a law firm. One day after work, my aunt proposed,

“Joyce, I would like to introduce a young man to you.”

At first I thought she was kidding. Afterwards, she mentioned it again for several times,

“He is just twenty five now, nice and diligent. Also, he had a small flat. Don’t miss the boat dear! ”

I thought “It is doing no harm to meet that boy and at least this will help fulfilling my aunt’s promise for introducing a girl to her best friend’s son.”

Hence I agreed.

On one Sunday’s evening, we had dinner at a restaurant. When we first met, it was a bit embarrassing as his parents and my aunt were there too. He was tall, and good-looking. If it was not his qualifications and profession which didn’t fit in the criteria of most girls’ Mr. Right, he would not need to know girls through introduction by relatives and friends as he had few chances to come across girls due to his work in the market.

Frankly, I was not that beautiful. I was at best quite comely, and didn’t have a very good health condition. When I was in junior secondary school I had got pneumonia. Under my mother’s intent care, I recovered very soon, but still weaker and shorter than other girls at the same age. I hoped I could find a man who really love me and taking care of me.

After a week or about, he phoned me and asked me out for dinner.

The first time Jim and I dated at a comfortable restaurant.

“Joyce, do you like the food?” he asked me, feeling a bit nervous.

“It’s quite good. Do you often come here?

“Oh, I seldom go to dine in restaurants. I often eat at home.”

“Do you cook?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, really? There are few men knowing how to cook these days.”

And this was how we started our conversations.

Our encounter was not so romantic, nonetheless we were serious.

After dating for a year and more, I felt that he was a responsible and sincere person. Finally, we got married.

After marriage, I had adapted to his time schedule. He always went to work in early mornings and returned home in the evenings. He didn’t have official holidays throughout the entire year. I spent my time on weekends or holidays to have gatherings with our relatives and friends, and had dinner with him after his work then watched television and had chats.

Our life of marriage seemed ordinary, but we were content. Of course we, more or less, had certain changes and tolerance because of the different personalities of each other. We nonetheless would calmly express our feelings or opinions to solve problems. A happy marriage needs both sides to sustain. We had achieved some targets, including Jim’s becoming of citizens of this city ten years ago, purchasing a bigger new flat and opening a small-size stall selling frozen meats. However our existing common goal is how to let our son Simon, who is twelve, grow up happily.

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