Lots of love needed

It’s been a pretty difficult day for Mei here in Lanzhou.

Her much loved father passed away nearly 100 days ago, and it’s coming up to the time when she has to go back to her home village to pay her final respects at his grave, near her mother’s, in the hills behind her home village of Wu Dun Cun. She has been very sad, and I’d ask you to say a prayer for her if that’s the kind of thing you do, or reach out to her in some way.

He was one of the village leaders. He had to suffer seeing many people loose their lives during the famine brought on by the great leap forward. His compassionate eyes led me to believe he would have done his best to save those he was responsible for. Mei was about 3 at the time. It was his influence that enabled her to get into the PLA and start her nursing career.

I met him first a few years back, and instead of suspicion and friction, he killed a lamb and we ate like kings, with hand made noodles made from flour milled from his own wheat, and loads of Sichuan pepper. That was the first time I slept on a Kang which they lit a fire underneath. It was toasty warm, and the frost whitened the yard in the morning.

This year developed prostate probems, and we got him here to Lanzhou to look after him. During the course of the examinations in hospital they found he had inoperable lung cancer. Mei decided to look after him for a while, and we got some good food into him and he was able to function reasonably well after a while. I had some English black tea that I had brought over with me, and he really enjoyed it.

So he went home and in a very short time he was gone, surrounded by his friends and family. The evening before he died, after supper, he walked round the village and visited a lot of the people he knew. So he said goodbye. When my time comes, I hope I’m as brave as that kind and gentle man.