China
16:14, 18-Jul-2017
40-year promise: Chinese man keeps word with devotion to handicapped brother
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“The last words of my father were a request to treat my older brother nicely, and I promised him ‘as long as I have something to eat, I will never let him [my brother] feel hungry’,” said 65-year-old Xia Kexin, who has been taking care of his mentally-handicapped brother for 40 years in central China’s Shannxi Province.
Never complained
Photo from Youth.cn
Photo from Youth.cn
Last Friday, Kexin was seen rebuilding the family's old house with his 77-year-old brother Kelin, who suffers from a learning disability.
“My older brother is the only treasure left by my father,” said Kexin. With eight brothers and sisters in total, Kexin was the only one his father could count on financially.
“We’ve never complained about sustaining him, because he’s our brother,” said Kexin’s wife, who’s always by her husband’s side.
He’s not a burden
Photo from Youth.cn
Photo from Youth.cn
Kelin wanted to go to a nursing home in 2014 so he could make life easier for his younger brother’s family, even though Kexin strongly disagreed as he “never feels Kelin is a burden.”
Unfortunately, Kelin could barely eat in the nursing home, as food there was too hard to chew. Kexin decided to bring his brother home again, and they’ve never been apart from each other since then.
Over the past 40 years, the brothers have seldom fought or argued. And Kexin’s selfless devotion has been widely praised in the neighborhood, as well as touching many since the news of the relationship was spread on China’s social media platforms.