(Minghui.org) In 1998, my husband was convicted of a crime and sentenced to eight years in jail.
My sister-in-law had given me her blessing to divorce him if I wanted to. She had said that it would be too cruel to force a young wife to wait eight years for her errant husband to return.
I had been practicing Falun Dafa for a year when my husband was arrested, and I was devastated by his sentence. But since I lived by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I was determined to wait for him and give him at least a second chance.
When my husband was released eight years later in 2006, I welcomed him with open arms. Our son, now ten years old, was also there to greet him.
He was very touched, and gradually realized that it was my belief in Falun Dafa that gave me the strength to keep our family together during this difficult time. Soon, he began to identify more with the teachings of Falun Dafa and even found two jobs – a difficult thing to do for an ex-con.
To this day, he will speak up for me and my beliefs, in spite of all the negative Chinese Communist propaganda against it. But piecing together a broken family is never an easy task, and took us a long while. Here is our story.
Coming Home
Prison had left my husband malnourished and weak. Often, he could think of little else. For the six months after his return, I had to put my efforts into taking care of him, both physically and emotionally. In addition to nursing him back to health, I also defended him against the rest of his family, who were wary of him because of his past.
Once, he asked me if I was spending too much money on him. I assured him that it wouldn't be a problem if he promised to find an honest job after he recovered. He agreed.
At first, my husband wouldn't believe the benefits of Dafa and the facts about the persecution. The government's propaganda had gotten to him, and he was afraid of how the prison authorities would torture the practitioners.
“If the guards beat one of us prisoners to death, they'll write it off as a heart attack. Your people have even less rights than that. This country doesn't treat you like human beings,” he said to me one day.
“There are limits to kindness,” I told him. “To most other people, you have surpassed that limit. People tell me left and right that I should have left you, and nobody would have blamed me if I had. Nobody would say that I'm a bad person if I had chosen to leave you.
“Your parents thought it was odd that I stayed; I told them that I wanted to wait for you so that our child can have a father,” I continued. “They hadn't believed me. They never offered me any help. Despite this, I worked odd jobs to raise our son, cared for your sister when she fell ill, and cooked and cleaned for your parents.
“And honestly, I could have left. If I didn't practice Falun Gong, I would have left. I could have given your parents our son, re-married, and gone off to live a happy life.
“But I didn't. I didn't leave, because Mr. Li's teachings taught me how to be a better, more altruistic person. I chose the higher road so that my conscience would stay clear.”
From that point on, my husband would not say bad things about Dafa anymore. He began to think more positively about Dafa and grew appreciative of Dafa's role in the preservation of his family.
A New and Improved Version of Himself
My mother-in-law died in 2001 and we were too poor to bury her ashes. Though my husband's two brothers lived fairly comfortably in Beijing, they refused to split the cost with us. So for a while, my mother-in-law never had a proper burial.
When my husband finally got a job and started making money, he asked whether it was okay if he bought a spot at a graveyard to bury his mother. I told him it was fine and that was his duty as a son. His father died in 2010 and we also had to bury him.
At times my husband got upset about his brothers being selfish. I would tell him that he shouldn't be preoccupied with money and other details when it comes to taking care of his parents.
I constantly told my husband about the principles of Falun Dafa and conducted myself accordingly.
Gradually, my husband's attitude towards Falun Dafa changed. He became an honest person and appreciated how I remained true to myself and gave him a happy family.
He began to wear Dafa amulets and listened to the facts about the persecution. He even told me that I must expose the Chinese Communist regime's lies and violent past.
Soon, his luck took a great turn for the better. His life was threatened a few times and he got away safely each time. He found two jobs and our living situation improved. Our son follows the teachings of Falun Dafa and enjoys school. He's made a lot of high marks and good friends.
I quit my job in 2013 to switch to a more flexible one. My husband supported my decision and said that he could split the homemaker duties with me for a while. When I couldn't find a job that I liked, he told me that I should just stop working if I wanted to.
Now, I have more time to clarify the truth about Dafa and the persecution to others.
One day I asked my husband if he wanted to speak up and show his support for Mr. Li Hongzhi. He quickly answered yes.
He recorded himself for an overseas television station and wished Mr. Li a happy New Year, saying, “I wish that there were Falun Gong practitioners all over the world, especially in China. This way the noble virtues from ancient China can be spread across this country.”
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