Reborn - Chongxi, or Jianxi (冲喜, 见喜)

"Chongxi', or "Jianxi" is a kind of folk belief behavior in Asian countries such as China and India. Let marriage chase the bad luck and diseases away, reborn. Under the pandemic a year ago, my father, my oldest uncle, and my husband's great aunt Rose passed away. All 3 died a month before their birthday, 87,94, and 105, respectively. We did not have any family gatherings, everything was online through Zoom, Faceboook, or WeChat.

During the lockdown for the Pandemic, I started working from home every other day to my office. After becoming fully vaccinated, I went back to work in my office full-time this past May. My oldest son Jonathan was a second-year resident in a hospital in New York State, and he was working in the emergency room at the time.

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Richard was still a medical student doing his rotations, so he was well protected and was not exposed to Covid-19. He was having fun learning.

Joe was working in a local pharmacy while studying online; he and his girlfriend were very busy providing COVID vaccine shots in their respective pharmacies, an appointment every 15 minutes.

A wedding is a sign of hope and rebirth. My father's side of the family celebrated the first wedding during the pandemic this past May. My father's generation poem: 子宗国景方,原文肇自唐, 嘉庆创继业, 树德建朝纲, 长龙传家远, 学耕互商联. My father is 文， I am 肇，this one is 自。韩自强(means Self-improvement) The same generation with my children.

Richard and Paola's wedding was celebrated on June 26th. They both graduated from Middleberry College, met while voluteering at the Open Door Clinic, a free health clinic for uninsured and under-insured adults in Addison County, Vermont. Paola continued working for the clinic after graduation and Richard volunteered when he was free. At the same time, she recruited her own sister, a junior at Harvard University, to volunteer for the Clinic too. They brought vaccines to remote farms and set up vaccination sites. Together, they contributed to Vermont having the highest vaccination rate in the country and the lowest Covid infections as well. It was the first time our family of five gathered in one place since the Pandemic, Jonathan almost did not make it since he had a graduatation to attend on Friday, and had to be in the hospital at 6 AM on Monday. He was able to travel on Friday and give his speach on Zoom for the graduation online and flew back on Sunday morning. I was so pleased to see my favorite flower Magnolia × alba. the pleasantly fragrant flower used and arranged together to be worn by brides during the traditional wedding ceremony. I bought all of the shopkeeper's supply for the day.

The 3rd marriage this year was a surprise; my sister called and told me that her brother-in-law just got married again. She was very proud to tell me that she made this happen without any effort. One of her co-workers was asking if there was any suitable man for her. She just mentioned that her brother-in-law was single again after a divorce many years ago. The next thing was that her coworker wanted to visit her home. So while my sister prepared a dinner for her, she was wandering around the house looking at photos. My sister was not aware of her intention until she asked who was your brother-in-law in the photo. My sister pointed to him in the photo. Her coworker said, "he looks good". My sister was surprised that she wanted to see her brother-in-law James in person. They met and things took off from there; the next thing was that they got married. James' mother was so happy that her son was happy again and lost 7lbs in a very short time. The whole family had a celebration in a restaurant to welcome the new bride. The bride is the oldest in her family, she has 2 younger brothers, one got the family orchard and the other got the family business. She had earlier married into her husband's family, eventually divorcing without any children. James and his first wife tried to have a child in his first marriage but failed, then she tried artificial insemination and got pregnant with a boy. It was a natural birth at full term but the doctor told them the boy died the second day. It was a big blow for them and her mom since her mom had already moved into their home and was ready to take care of her grandson. Then James and his wife divorced. If they had sold the house, none of them could afford to buy another one just like this one. So her mom suggested that they keep the house, living their own way of life, James vs his ex-wife and mother-in-law under the same roof. It looked as if his first wife wanted to prove herself, so she went out and got herself pregnant again. This time with a poor Spanish-speaking young man, but her mom would not accept the poor man as her husband. Very soon, she brought her son home and the father never showed up, not even once. James accepted the boy as his own, the family of four lived happily for many years. Two years ago, her mom passed away from cancer. Her mom wanted to see her daughter married. She did manage to find another Chinese man who accepted her son and with her dying mom's approval. James kept good relationships with them since they all love this boy. When James told them he got married, his ex-wife told him that she wanted half of his house even though she did not make a single payment. James took out a loan and paid his ex-wife for her half. Together with his new wife, they will pay the loan back together.