A 90-year-old's love letter to his ill wife

Tang Junwen accompanies his wife, Liu Xianrui, at her bedside at a hospital in Chengdu, on Feb 18, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

What's the expiry date on love? Different couples may give you different answers. But a 90-year-old man in Southwest China's Sichuan province shows that not only he believes in love, but can still love.

Tang Junwen wrote his wife who was ill a letter thanking her for loving him for more than 60 years and encouraged her to fight her illness. The letter has moved many internet users who say they have started believing in love again.

Tang's wife, Liu Xianrui, fell ill at home in Meishan, Sichuan province, at night on Feb 11. When Liu did not get better the next day, Tang contacted their children and sent Liu to a local hospital.

The diagnosis showed that Liu was in a serious condition, so Liu was transferred to a hospital in Chengdu, about 70 kilometers away from Meishan. Fearing the diagnoses would worry Tang, his children did not inform him about the transfer.

When Tang went to the local hospital to see Liu in the afternoon of Feb 13, he found his wife gone. Even though he had a problem in his right leg, he anxiously searched every ward of the hospital and even went to parks and vegetable market his wife used to go to.

When all his efforts proved futile, Tang went back to the hospital and called one of his sons. "I want to know how is my wife", Tang demanded, and refused to eat anything after coming back home. Unable to persuade Tang, his children told him where Liu was and arranged a video call for him to speak to her.

"He burst into tears when he saw my mother", said Tang's youngest son. "He told her to take good care of herself, and he will wait for her at home."

But in the afternoon of Feb 14, Tang showed up in the intensive care unit where Liu was hospitalized in Chengdu. Holding Liu's hand, Tang couldn't help crying again. Later, he remembered that it was Valentine's Day and said apologetically to Liu, "Sorry, I forgot to buy flowers for you."