Wang Zhongchen, 74, has been retired for 29 years and has been running for 32 years. Qiao (name anonymized), 75, has suffered from cerebellar atrophy for five years and has been bedridden for three.
The couple has been married for 53 years. They used to stroll and run hand in hand every day, an enviable silver-haired pair in the eyes of their neighbors. But ever since she was diagnosed with cerebellar atrophy, he has run alone for five years.
To take care of her, he gets up at 2 a.m. every day to go running, so that he can be there when she wakes up. But he doesn’t know that for the past three years, she has woken up with him every morning, silently counting down the time until he should be back, quietly waiting for the sound of his footsteps as he comes upstairs and unlocks the door...
The loving elderly couple used to stroll and shop hand in hand every day
Twenty-nine years ago, Wang Zhongchen retired. By then, he had already been running for three years and was determined to keep it up. He would leave at 4 a.m. to run and be back home by 6 a.m., where his wife would have already prepared a steaming breakfast. A year later, his running route gained a companion. “At first I couldn’t keep up with him. I’d chase after him while shouting, pretending I wouldn’t cook for him if he didn’t wait. So he slowed down and waited for me, holding my hand as we ran,” Qiao said. She spoke these words lying motionless on her bed — she hasn’t held her husband’s hand and gone out for a walk for three years.
Every day they would go out running, stroll, and shop for groceries hand in hand. Their neighbors all knew them. “As soon as we stepped out, neighbors would ask, ‘Off for a run again?’ We both love going out — we can’t just stay home.” Grandpa Wang wiped the drool from his wife’s mouth after giving her water. “Now she doesn’t have a choice but to stay put. She can’t move.”
Although her body is immobilized, Grandma Qiao’s spirit remains strong. “Back then, we ran all over Shenyang. We went everywhere.” When Shenyang’s Second Ring Road was first completed, the couple bought bread, bottled water, and ham sausages. “He rode a bike carrying me. Sometimes we got off and walked, strolling along the entire Second Ring Road in one whole day. When we got tired, we’d find some shade, sit down, and eat our bread.” This is Grandma Qiao’s most romantic travel memory. Whenever she recalls it, her pale face lights up with vitality.
His wife paralyzed, he goes running at 2 a.m. every day
Five years ago, on their way back from an outing together, Grandma Qiao suddenly felt her legs stop responding. At the hospital, she was diagnosed with cerebellar atrophy, which worsened day by day. But Grandpa Wang still liked to accompany her on walks when possible. Three years ago, Grandma Qiao became completely bedridden. “When we ran, he had to hold my hand. Now he has to take care of me. I’ve been holding him back my whole life,” Grandma Qiao said.
For 32 years, Grandpa Wang has kept running two hours every day, covering 15 kilometers, never stopping even in rain or snow. Since his wife became bedridden, Wang Zhongchen moved his exercise time two hours earlier. He gets up at 2 a.m. to run outside and is back home by 5 a.m. on the dot. “She can’t move on her own. I have to help her with toileting. I go out for a run before she wakes up, and by the time I’m back, she’s awake, and I can stay in the room with her,” Grandpa Wang said. As long as she is awake, he has to help her shift positions every hour and ask if she wants water or needs to use the toilet. This has been his routine for the past three years.
But he doesn’t know that Grandma Qiao is actually aware of every move he makes as soon as he gets up. “I wake up the moment he leaves. When he comes back from running and steps into the hallway, I can recognize the sound of him climbing the stairs!” Only when the sound of the key turning in the lock reaches her ears does Grandma Qiao pretend to close her eyes again.
Last winter, during the coldest spell, Grandpa Wang came back from his run with his hands frozen numb. He struggled for quite a while to insert the key into the lock. Hearing the keys jingling outside, Grandma Qiao grew anxious but couldn’t move a muscle.
Even after her hands warmed up, the door still wouldn’t open. The lock had frozen, trapping the key in the keyhole. This left Grandpa Wang in a panic. “There’s still an old lady inside this house who needs care!” It was too early to ask for help, and he couldn’t find anyone nearby, so he called his son. Father and son spent some noisy moments prying at the door. Inside, Grandma Qiao was in such a rush she began to cry. “He was anxious, and I was anxious too. I just resented that I couldn’t move,” Grandma Qiao said.
“I must keep running — for both of us”
Grandpa Wang said he joined a long-distance running team, but their group activities had fixed schedules. He switched from one team to another. “Now I mostly run on my own, because I have to come home to care for my wife, and I don’t have as much free time as before.”
For three years, Grandma Qiao has rarely gone out. Other than listening to the radio, her greatest pleasure is hearing her husband talk about his daily runs. “Where did you run today? What was the weather like? Did anything happen along the way?” Grandpa Wang updates her every day. “That big mall by the municipal government square has been built. Remember? When you were well, people used to gather around it. Now it looks so impressive. And Shenshuiwan Park, where we used to go together — it’s changed too. There are more trees now. I don’t even recognize the roads around Hunnan anymore!”
Grandma Qiao said that although she can’t move, every time her husband shares these stories, she imagines herself being there. “Even just remembering how it used to be when we went together makes me happy. I really want to go see it again.”
“Sometimes I dream that the two of us are out for a stroll with our old neighbors, or that we’re running together. I feel like my legs might move again.” But once she wakes up, her numb legs fail to respond at all. Her husband has already left for his run. “I support his running. He can’t end up like me. He has to stay healthy.”
Grandpa Wang has three children, who almost call them every day to check in and often come to visit. This past Spring Festival, his eldest son carried his mother up six flights of stairs to come home for the holiday. But the couple doesn’t want to trouble their children. “I can take care of my wife, so I don’t want to be a burden to them,” Grandpa Wang said.
Sitting by the bed, Grandpa Wang held his wife’s curled-up, stiff hand in one of his while fiddling with the crackling radio. “I have to keep running. I must stay healthy — for both of us. I need to get myself in shape to take care of my paralyzed wife!”