An Inspiring Story...

[Chewey]

While I have been living in Beijing for the last few months, my father was also in China for the past month, only he was in the southern region in a village that is only a few hours from Hong Kong. As a retired doctor, he returns to the village of his parents every year, where he can speak the local village dialect, and where he can help consult and offer medical advice to the local hospitals. Below is part of a letter that he sent me, regarding one of the best first-hand stories I have ever heard. I hope you all enjoy it.

Remember, any thoughtful act that you perform for someone else may have a much larger impact than you were ever able to imagine.

Dear Kids,

I am now well enough to travel again. I went back to Taishan and am now nearing the end of my 1 month stay. Several notable things happened during my trip. I am writing a brief summary.

On my last trip, in April 2006, there was an old man in my village that had some difficulty getting around. He was holding onto furnitures as he got around. On this trip, I brought a walker for him. Bringing the walker was a hassle because it did not fit into any luggages. I used a duffel bag. The duffel bag did not have wheels, so I had to carry it. When I got there, I thought I was too late. The old man had been bedridden for 3 weeks, stopped eating rice, and was essentially waiting to die. The family had also given up on him. I gave him the walker anyways, but he was barely able to stand up and was too weak to raise his foot to take even one step. At that time, I thought that my bringing the walker would be a wasted effort. Because the village people are superstitious, they would throw away all his belongings when he died, including the walker. To my surprise, when I visited 2 weeks later, the old man was already walking outside his house using the walker. He resumed eating rice and was no longer waiting to die. In retrospect, he was in severe depression because of his inability to get around and therefore just gave up on life. The walker that I intended to help him get around ended up saving his life. I told him that I was very happy to see him walk around, he told me that he was happy to see me...

I seriously had a moment where I was like five years old again and thought my dad was the greatest person in the world.

[Trent Lawless]

Just goes to show what can happen if you make the effort.

It reminds me of my mother, actually. She's only 62, but for the past couple years she's had some sort of as-yet-undetermined neuromuscular condition that has kept her from being able to walk (on top of the fact that her celiac sprue condition has given an otherwise very healthy woman osteoporosis). She's still very with it and functioning in life, but she's gone through several bouts of feeling worthless because she's not active like she used to be. But when she realized that her grandkids didn't care if she was walking or motoring around on her scooter (same with the kids she teaches in school), that helped her come to terms with it and know that she can still do a lot, just differently.

Great story. I'll go to bed happy and thinking of my mommy.

[Avarice]

Awesome story Chewey...it was indeed inspiring. Thanks for sharing it, it was good to see something come out of this.

[rawhide]

great story chewey your dad sounds like a very caring person.

[Chewey]

Thanks guys.

Mark, these stories have definitely made me reflect on how we often take the little things for granted while we have them. I thought it was also touching to hear that in spite of your mother's condition, sometimes the innocence of young children can help remind us that some of these things aren't as big of a deal in their eyes as we might think it is ourselves.

I wish the very best for your mother, and that they can figure out the neuromuscular condition.