Xu Yuehua lost her legs in an accident at the age of 12 and volunteered to take care of orphans at a social welfare institution in Xiangtan, Hunan province.
Hu Guoqing / for China Daily
Posted on 09/07/2011 9:20:19 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
An orphan among orphans
Updated: 2011-09-02 07:57
By Guo Yali (China Daily)
BEIJING - Being an orphan who lost both legs hasn't stopped Xu Yuehua from having a room full of her own children.
The 55-year-old, who gets around by walking on a pair of stools, is "mother" to more than 100 children from an orphanage in Xiangtan, Hunan province.
"She's got a way with kids after all these years nursing and caring for the children, many of whom are disabled or mentally challenged," said Li Yilong, deputy director of Xiangtan City Social Welfare Home.
The home has around 80 children in its kindergarten.
"She is always cheerful playing with them and never gets upset with the mess she has to deal with," Li said.
An orphan herself, Xu has been taking care of the children in the welfare home for 38 years.
"I felt like a burden to others being taken care of and doing no work," she said when talking about her early days in the welfare home.
Xu's father died when she was one year old and her mother passed away when she was 12. Only three months later she lost her legs after being hit by a train when picking up coal cinders on the tracks.
Her aging stepfather and young sisters took care of her the first few years, but in 1973 the family was not able to support her any more and the local welfare home accepted her.
When the head of the home visited her, Xu asked whether she could do something for the children.
"But she said she would only assign me some job if I could walk," Xu recalled.
With her legs amputated, she was not able to use crutches or get artificial limbs.
"But seeing a toddler learning to walk against a stool, I realized stools would help me walk, too," Xu said.
Then she got two handy stools, and practiced moving little by little.
To walk, she grabs the stools with her hands and moves her body onto one stool at a time for balance.
A few months later she was able to walk to the head office and got permission to take care of the infants.
"She taught me to be open-minded and optimistic," said She Shengli, who was once an abandoned baby born with cleft lip and palate and abandoned as a baby.
Shengli was found on the street in March 1973 and became the first child Xu looked after at the welfare home.
It's not easy to feed a baby with such a defect as they usually have problems sucking and swallowing. But Xu managed to feed the infant drop by drop.
When Shengli underwent surgery at Xiangtan Center Hospital, Xu was by her side day and night nursing her.
In the eyes of Shengli, her "mother" is always spirited.
"She taught me to face life with a smile," said Shengli, who is already the mother of a 15-year-old boy.
Now Shengli takes her son to visit "grandma" regularly, like other children Xu has brought up.
In 1987, Xu married a kitchen worker at the welfare home and they had a healthy boy in 1990.
Xu's own son, Lai Mingzhi, said he once envied the children of the orphanage as they took away the love from his mother.
"When my mom went to the kindergarten, she used to lock me up at home," recalled Lai Mingzhi, now 21, and a soldier of the People's Liberation Army based in Jilin city, Jilin province.
"But I gradually understood that the orphans need her more than I do."
And her husband, Lai Ziyuan, a simple and honest man, has been supporting Xu through the years.
"Our life is happy and she takes good care of our family," he said.
Xu said she never thought about giving up attending to the children.
"I feel very, very happy being with the children."
Xu received an electronic wheelchair as a gift from China Central Television's Channel 7 early this year.
"I ride it to the kindergarten, and it takes only a few minutes to get there. So fast and convenient," said Xu excitedly.
"But I always carry the stools with me, because I need them when moving in the house and taking care of the babies," she added.
China Daily
Xu Yuehua lost her legs in an accident at the age of 12 and volunteered to take care of orphans at a social welfare institution in Xiangtan, Hunan province.
Hu Guoqing / for China Daily
Wow, what courage she has, makes my current situation seem smaller somehow. (recently unemployed)
If it’s true then good for her. However, I ALWAYS question information from China concerning “how well they take care of their orphans”.
I had never seen true sorrow until I looked into the eyes of just such an orphan.
it's literally unbearable.
It is getting much better with the rise of Chinese affluence. Some parents are actually able to keep the second child and just pay the fine, now. Domestic adoption is becoming more prevalent, so the orphanages are less strained.
I sometimes wonder if the economic rise of China isn’t God’s response to how bitterly the Chinese people lament the loss their children.
“It is getting much better with the rise of Chinese affluence”.
Perhaps but I question any data from China concerning the number of orphans and how they are treated. China originally tried “domestic adoption” and it didn’t work out so well. The Chinese were adopting the boys (of course) as “sons”. The girls they adopted as “free slaves”... not as daughters.
China will always have an issue with orphans being “worthless”.. especially the female ones. A son is considered a blessing since he is the parent’s social security. That is, he is suppose to provide for his parents when they are old and he is working. Girls are referred to as “maggots in rice”. They are “given” away to the husband’s family. That is why so many of the orphans are girl babies or a baby with a disability.
When we brought home our little girl from China, she was underfed, filthy, and obviously physically abused. Her right arm was obviously yanked over and over and over. When you went to pick her up, she would hide her arm and a look of fear came over her little face.
She was one in a group of nine orphans adopted during that same time frame/through the same agency. ALL of them “hated” any middle aged Asian woman. Several of them would go fetal if they saw one. My daughter and one other would “ball up their fists” in fear/defiance. One little girl would get so scared that she would relieve herself and vomit. Needless to say, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the caretakers of orphans are anything but “Mother Theresa’s”. The one mentioned in the article may be a good person. However, through personal experience... I don’t believe anything the Chinese say over their orphans.
Mine has “gone blank” once when seeing a middle age asian woman, but other than that she only suffered from a lack of stimulation.
I saw not a trace of the infamous Chinese disdain for girls when we went to bring our daughter home. To the contrary, I got the distinct impression the people shared in what they considered our girl’s good fortune at being adopted.
The Chinese people were very thrilled with seeing the Chinese girls with American parents. I don’t remember the Chinese term but it meant “lucky ones”. The orphanages are run by the government... therefore, funding/food/medicine is lacking and severely. Were you able to visit your daughter’s orphanage? We weren’t.. it wasn’t allowed period.
There is a big difference between the Chinese regular people and their government. The government controls their media and puts out information they want you to know. Have you ever read about a flu wiping out an entire orphanage or most of it? You won’t but it happens.
The Chinese are very aware of the world’s view on their human rights or lack thereof. Any article pertaining to that Country is up for speculation.
Our travel group’s first trip after “gotcha day” was back to the SWI, but we thought that was a pretty stupid place to go with our new baby, so took a pass.
Surprisingly enough, one of the other parents in our group found pictures of our girls in the orphanage on the internet before we got them, and gave the pictures to us. It was very clean and brite, but totally devoid of toys. It was also apparent the girls went from crib to walker, and back again, in their day to day life.
My daughter was born with a cleft lip and palate and was in a Chinese orphanage until age 4. Her lip was repaired in China at age 3, while we had her palate repaired when we got her home. An angel in the orphange fed her with a dropper as a baby. It is nice to put a face to one of these angels and see how truly courageous she is herself. The human spirit is amazing.
My daughter was born with a cleft lip and palate and was in a Chinese orphanage until age 4. Her lip was repaired in China at age 3, while we had her palate repaired when we got her home. An angel in the orphange fed her with a dropper as a baby. It is nice to put a face to one of these angels and see how truly courageous she is herself. The human spirit is amazing.
I wonder about the spirit being “human” per se.
I’m sure you’re aware of the ironic proverb about the seemingly spontanious love Chinese and Americans have for each other despite the antagonism of the governments, as contrasted to the strong alliance of America and Japan despite the antipathy the peoples feel for each other.
I suspect there is actually some non-obvious cultural/temperment similarity that reasonates between us and the Chinese that we don’t share with most other countries other than perhaps Israel.
The babies in our group ranged from 8 months to 13 months. Only one was able to sit. One little girl had no stimulation or repositioning at all. Her skull was pushed in a little on one side and the poor thing wore a helmet for a year. Lead was another issue. Most tested with lead but one little girl had a very high level. She had also suffered a severe burn to the back of her calf. The U.S. doctors felt that the medicine they gave her was full of lead so that resulted in high levels. It wasn’t ever disclosed how a baby that wasn’t able to even sit could be burned. It was speculated that she rolled over onto a heater. Who knows?
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