The Love That Defied Time

In May 2021, Aunt Hu came to see me, carrying her bamboo basket just like the one she had brought ten years ago, filled with my favorite pickled vegetables. However, she also held a lawsuit in her hand. She was sued.
“In the case that I will be forced to justify my existence in front of a judge, let it be so,” she replied with a hint of irony in her voice. “Maybe it’s not such a bad thing. At least I’ll get to tell them why I’m still here,” she added with a wry smile.
Jokingly, I said, “Here’s a basket for you and my lawyer. It would take more than this pickled cabbage to pay for the legal fees.”
Despite being 65, Aunt Hu was still full of charm and style as ever-her silver hair still had lovely waves, a silk scarf of beautiful colors gracefully wrapped around her neck and just the right shade of lipstick to make her face glow. She was wearing a light beige coat, high-waisted jeans, and ankle boots. Time had not affected her grace.
The claim was that she behaved in a way as to « manipulate a frail old man for the sake of money.”. The plaintiff? The daughter of Uncle Sun, the man that Aunt Hu had married a decade ago. The daughter said that the mother had faked the father out (he was “severely mentally ill”) in the marriage and then forced him to hand over his whole estate to her.
I was acquainted with Uncle Sun before Aunt Hu entered his life. At that time, he was a shattered man who used to roam the streets in worn-out clothes, talking to himself under his breath or yelling at the sky. People called him “Crazy Old Sun.” Some said he had lost his mind after the death of the woman he loved most.
Then Aunt Hu came to the rescue. It wasn’t long before the pair tied the knot—if I am not mistaken, within two years.
But it really did.
Until Uncle Sun died two years ago from a stroke. By his will, he bequeathed Aunt Hu his flat, a small business, his bank savings, and his personal effects. His daughter, Sun Shuwen, was outraged.
“One way or another, the flat is worth no less than $45,000! The business might easily be sold for $90,000! And the money? More than $100,000 altogether. So, even if she had been his private nurse for years, she’d only get $30,000 of the total, at most. She’s just money-grubbing!”
Aunt Hu wanted to resolve the issue quietly. She invited me to send a message to Shuwen.
Nevertheless, Shuwen was unyielding.
“That old trickster has such nerve!” she shouted at me when I trying to talk to her. “If she is very innocent, why is she afraid now? I’m going to get there before you and take everything, that’s for sure!”
From a legal point of view, the last will was done in a proper way. However, Shuwen’s solicitor gave me a warning: “You know how these things turn out. Judges almost always pick the family side. Your client may lose up to 20% of the inheritance.”
M Aunt Hu was not apprehensive about the money. “It’s never been about that,” she told me.
Suddenly, in the court case, Shuwen’s lawyer impugned the character of Aunt Hu by asserting that they possessed ‘proof’ that she was a gold-digging fraud. They argued that she had been married four times (five if the one annulled for bigamy was counted), had had relationships with the men, and that they even had a video of her being attacked on the street by other women who called her a ‘homewrecker.’
Aunt Hu’s tears were not of shock from the allegations, but of having her history trampled upon.
“I didn’t just love the men I was with, I adored them,” she said to me afterward. “So, does that really make me bad or just human?”
I researched more about her past. She was first married to a man who divorced her because she was unable to have children. Her second partner left her when he realized that he could not make her happy. Her third one—the only person she ever loved—passed away from cancer. She decided to sell all her possessions to help him.
Her fourth marriage stopped when she discovered her husband walking around with half of his body exposed and her little daughter was there. “I didn’t care what people thought. My child’s safety was above everything.”
What about number five? Just a lie. The man was already married. When his real wife appeared with a mob, Aunt Hu received the beating without resisting. “We were both victims,” she shared.
Still, none of it mattered to Shuwen—until she saw the photos.
Not those “scandalous” ones which her lawyer wanted to use in court, but the real ones.
Photos of Aunt Hu and Uncle Sun, year after year, being together growing old. The last one was taken after his stroke—Aunt Hu, gazing down at him with a smile as he struggled to lift the camera with the only hand that worked.
It was that moment when Shuwen lost control of her emotions.
She had spent a lot of time blaming her father for her mother’s death. She had moved to another country, thinking that he had given up on life. However, Aunt Hu had been there—supporting him, loving him, and keeping him alive longer than anyone had expected.
Shuwen finally decided to drop the lawsuit.
Now the two ladies run the store together. They don’t hold themselves back; they play loud music, laugh, and reminisce about the man they both loved.
As for me? I have learnt something from Aunt Hu.
Love is not about how many times you fall. The point is how many times you get back up, keep your heart open, and continue on.
Even if the world tells you not to.