A son in China invited a violinist to play Joe Hisaishi’s “Mother” for his hospitalised mum, a former music teacher suffering from cirrhosis of the liver, to give her strength, but she died six days later. - Photo: SCMP composite/bjnews
BEIJING: A Chinese son invited a violinist to play for his dying mother as she lay in her hospital bed, moving many people online with a melody dubbed “the most tender farewell”.
Huang Haile, from southern China’s Guangdong province, bid farewell to his mother Ye Jindi on Jan 6, at the Dongguan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
A video of the violinist performing Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi’s famous song, Mother, featured in the 1999 film Kikujiro, in Ye’s intensive care unit (ICU) ward, went viral.
The violinist plays as Huang Haile’s illness-stricken mother lies in her hospital bed. - Photo: QQ.com
Ye was diagnosed with late-stage liver cirrhosis in 2023. Last December, after celebrating her 77th birthday, she was diagnosed with inflammation of the heart.
Doctors said her condition did not allow surgery.
Her health condition declined rapidly and she was admitted to the ICU on December 29.
Ye was a primary school music teacher for two years, so Huang invited the violinist Tang Xing to play for her on December 31.
Huang pictured with his mother, Ye Jindi, when he was a younger man. - Photo: QQ.com
Huang said another reason was that a person’s hearing is the last sense to fade before death.
Huang said he originally hoped the song could boost Ye’s strength and confidence to continue battling against her illness.
Unexpectedly, she died a week later, making the violin performance a farewell song.
Huang and his mother when he was a toddler. His father died when he was 13 years old. - Photo: QQ.com
Huang said as Ye’s condition deteriorated he respected her will and transferred her back to the ordinary ward, where she greeted her death peacefully.
Huang said he was deeply attached to his mother because she raised him alone after his sailor father died when he was 13.
She even sacrificed her own romantic life to keep him company.
After she was diagnosed with liver disease, he quit his job to look after her full time.
“I could have hired a carer and kept my job, but no amount of money is worth the time I got to spend with her,” he said.
Huang kisses his mother farewell as she lies in her hospital bed. - Photo: QQ.com
As she was dying, Huang spoke to her at her hospital bed, apologising for the mistakes he had made.
He said he promised her that she would come back to visit him when he is 80.
Huang said he will live optimistically like he had promised his mother and get ready for the day they meet again.
“This is the most tender farewell. The melody is full of his reluctance to see her go,” said an online observer.
“Listening to her favourite music and having her son holding her hand till the last moment of her life, I believe she was happy even when she was dying,” said another. - South China Morning Post
