‘I’m going now, don’t cry’: dying man in China tells wife

A DYING man’s last words to his wife in northern China after 64 years together, captured in a video of their final day together, has been watched by millions on mainland social media this week.

The video was taken at the 88-year-old’s bedside the day before he died in December last year from an unknown illness. It was posted online earlier this month on Douyin by a relative identified by the username Xin Jing Jia You.

 A video of an 88-year-old man about to die telling his distraught wife to be happy and live her life has gone viral on the mainland. (Photo: SCMP composite/handout)

“Grandpa has gone after all. Grandma has been crying like a child ever since,” the relative wrote in the video post, which has been viewed more than 32 million times.

“He left her reluctantly one day after their 64th wedding anniversary. He left the girl whom he has cherished and taken care of his whole life.”

Speaking in the local dialect of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region where the unidentified couple had lived together, the man told his wife to be strong and not let grief cause her to neglect her own needs.

The octogenarian grandfather, shown in the video lying in bed with his son sitting beside him, then gave his wife some final parting advice.

“If any grandson or daughter-in-law makes you unhappy, you shouldn’t compromise,” he said.

“Promise him, Grandma,” the woman taking the video is heard saying in the video.

The 83-year-old grandmother continued weeping quietly as she wiped her face to dry her eyes, then, after pausing for a moment, said to her husband: “I hate you. Why will you leave me alone in such a hurry?”

Gently reaching out and touching her face and arm, her husband replied: “Don’t cry. I don’t want to leave you but it’s not my choice.”

“It’s amazing that we’ve been a couple for so many years. Think of your two younger sisters. Their husbands both died when they were in their 50s and 60s,” he added.

The emotive video has trended widely on mainland social media in the past few days.

“I cried each time I saw this video,” one person said. “The grandpa didn’t mention the word love once, but his sentences were full of love. The grandpa was worried about the grandma living without him, while the grandma couldn’t bear to see him leave.”

“I viewed it three times. I envy their love. It’s the pure love of the old generation,” said another person.

A third person commented: “I couldn’t help crying when the grandma said, ‘I hate you’.”

Another said: “He left the world peacefully and with dignity. He didn’t have numerous tubes inserted into his body, like those old-aged patients with serious diseases. He still had a lucid mind and even comforted his wife. This old man has my blessings!” (Alice Yan, South China Morning Post)