Man films sick mother making him 'one last meal' before dying: 'I couldn’t stop crying'

Editor's note: This article was originally published on November 10, 2022. It has since been updated.

A good, home-cooked supper is frequently the finest way to demonstrate parental love. A video of a Chinese man filming his cancer-stricken mother preparing their final meal proves this! The video was posted on Douyin by a man called Deng from Dalian in northeast China. In the video, his mother, bald and dressed in pajamas, was busy cooking in the kitchen. The video is set to the classic Chinese folk music ballad "Farewell," reported South China Morning Post and Deng captioned it, “Mom, rest in peace. Nothing will defeat me anymore.” Deng, who is in his twenties, shot the video shortly before his mother died. Deng says his mother was a strong and independent woman. She was reportedly diagnosed with cancer in February but did not tell her family because she was afraid they would be concerned. She only allowed Deng to accompany her for cancer treatment.

Deng shared that his mother endured three rounds of chemotherapy, but she never complained, no matter how terrible it was. He claimed that days following his mother's third chemotherapy session, she abruptly asked him what meal he wanted. “She asked me to go to the market with her. We bought kelp, potatoes, and meat. After returning home, she went to the kitchen to cook,” Deng said.

“While she was cooking in the kitchen, I was sitting in the living room. I couldn’t stop crying seeing the sight of her back,” he said. “She was already very feeble, but she still cooked for me. She was gasping for breath and took a rest for a long time after cooking.” Deng stated that the lunch, the last his mother prepared, tasted just as nice as the previous ones she had prepared. “The taste was the same as before. I ate all the food at that dinner. I will remember those tastes forever,” said Deng.

The video even gathered clicks on Reddit's subreddit r/MadeMeSmile, with over 1,000 upvotes. “Perhaps my mother knew that I am a vlogger and this video is the last gift she gave me,” Deng shared, referring to the 80,000 likes and wonderful comments the video has received online. 

User BringOutYDead said, "Love is the most important ingredient..." User Kvothe_bloodless shared their own experience, saying, "My grandma always said she was retiring from cooking when she hit 70, then 80, then one of my last trips there when she was 90 and mostly confined to a wheelchair due to bad knees, she still got up and made my dad and myself lunch. We ate and we laughed and I hugged her knowing time was growing short with her. She was such an amazing cook and I didn't know until after she was gone that she had owned a restaurant for 15 years once upon a time. An army could show up and she'd figure out something to cook for everyone. I miss her."

User Scary-Second8308 said, "Bless this world. I haven't cried for a long time and after watching all these videos I'm just so happy thank you for this I haven't felt so happy in a while bless all of you." Another user Maleficent-Paper-593 added, "I have considered myself blessed to have had lost loved ones in my life. Through the emptiness and sadness, I understand that I am a better person because of their love. Bless you, in your time of loss."