(Minghui.org) My mother is 79 years old. People of her age in China have been through many persecution campaigns launched by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), such as “Three Anti”, “Five Anti”, “Three Years of Natural Disasters”, steel smelting, agricultural cooperatives, and the Cultural Revolution.
She hurt her right arm when working in an agricultural cooperative. After major surgery, she had difficulties doing any work with her right hand and arm. She had been sick and taken injections and medicine throughout the year for tuberculosis, high blood pressure, heart disease, skin diseases, disability in her right arm, cerebral thrombosis, cataracts, headaches, toothache, body aches, and much more.
In addition to having to cope with her illnesses, my mother raised six children—five girls and one boy—with the kids being of similar ages. Our family often only had food at the beginning of the month. Towards the end of the month, we went to the fields to dig up wild vegetables and boiled potatoes to survive.
Old clothes were passed down from the eldest to the youngest siblings. Although my mother was in poor health, she worked to earn some money to help the family. So the older sister carried the younger sister on her back to school and looked after the young child. We did not have money to buy textbooks, so we borrowed books passed down from other students. If the textbooks changed, we would borrow from our classmates and try to copy and study all the textbooks we could borrow.
My mother often looked sad due to her illnesses and the difficulties she faced. She thought that she wouldn’t live long and other family members thought so too. However, my mother is kindhearted and generous. Once, she brought a lost three-year-old girl home, took good care of her, and found her parents without asking for anything in return. She believes in the existence of gods and Buddhas, so she supports her children’s beliefs. Influenced by my mother, my sisters and I believe that bad deeds are punished and good deeds are rewarded.
While my mother was suffering from illnesses and other difficulties, she happened to encounter a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn Falun Dafa, so her fate changed totally. Now, she lives a very happy life despite being almost 80 years old.
After becoming a mother in 1996, I was suffering from severe postpartum depression and experienced troubles in my marriage. My colleague suggested: “You should learn Falun Dafa. Once you learn it, everything will be fine.” I was doubting how my illnesses could be cured by learning the free exercises. But, I decided to read the Falun Dafa books and hoped to improve my health.
My mother supported my learning Falun Dafa. A few days later, she asked me what I learned. As a new practitioner, I didn’t understand the Fa very well and told her that learning Falun Dafa is about being a good person and doing anything for the benefit of others. I can’t scold others if they scold me, and I can’t hit them either if they hit me. She worried that other people might take advantage of me, so she asked my sisters to persuade me to stop practicing. When my sisters came to my house and saw that my health improved after I read Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Dafa, they all took the book home to read. When my mother saw that my sisters also began to learn Falun Dafa, she asked my brother to visit me. When my brother saw that I was doing well and had recovered from my illnesses after practicing Falun Dafa, he was very happy about it.
Through practicing Falun Dafa, my sisters and I became even kinder and more considerate of others. Our health and family relationships improved. We were in good health and spirits and devoted more energy to our Dafa work. Thus, we became technical experts and received recognition. When our parents saw our miraculous changes, they were delighted, and our relatives and friends were happy for us.
Persecuted for Practicing Falun Dafa
When our family was immersed in practicing Falun Dafa, former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin launched the brutal persecution in July 1999. Everyone in the country faced the horror. Because my sisters and I told others that Falun Dafa was good, our homes were raided, and we were imprisoned again and again.
The CCP’s policy of implicating people for practicing Falun Dafa was to arrest them and send them to forced labor camps and psychiatric hospitals. Dafa practitioners’ spouses and children could not join the military. Their workplaces could deduct their bonuses and revoke the chances to be rated as “model workers.” The director of the community committee and the local police in charge would also be implicated. As a result, I was laid off and divorced when my child was only six years old.
One time, the police arrested me and took me and my child to the police station. I was interrogated separately and taken to a detention center after I insisted that Falun Dafa is good. The police sent my child to my ex-mother-in-law’s place. Due to fear of being implicated and persecuted, my ex-in-law’s family took my helpless child to the street, leaving the child homeless. When my mother heard about it, she asked my father to get my child.
My mother took my young child to the Public Security Bureau, Political and Legal Affairs Committee, 610 Office and other departments to ask them to release me. The people there were arrogant and refused to talk to her, so my mother and my child persisted in sitting on the cold concrete floor until someone saw them. Personnel from the public security bureau, work unit, and community went to my parents’ house many times to ransack it and extort money from them, demanding that they hand over the Dafa books. My parents resolutely resisted and refused to cooperate with them. They protected the Dafa books and informational materials.
I was detained for 16 years. It was very hard for my parents to take care of my child. They were worried because of me. My mother thought: What’s wrong with the government? Falun Dafa teaches people to be good. More people become better people. Why not let people learn to be good? The CCP is an evil Party!
My parents finally waited for me to be released. After being tortured and close to dying, I was sent home. My parents saw me recover quickly as soon as I was studying the Fa and doing the Falun Dafa exercises, without taking any medicine. After my health recovered, I was arrested again. The police monitored and harassed me. They demanded I give up my belief, and wanted to take me away from home.
More than a dozen policemen drove in two cars and carried cameras to my mother’s house to arrest me. The policemen acted like bandits and even confiscated white paper. My father resisted and told them the white paper was for my child to use. The police dragged me, while I was still weak and in poor health, to the car. My mother was on an intravenous drip at that time. She pulled out the tube, rushed desperately to the car, and tried to block the car with her body to stop them from taking me. The young and strong police officers pushed my mother aside and drove away quickly, leaving only my grieving parents and crying child.
That time I was taken to a psychiatric hospital and tortured so much that I couldn’t swallow water, or inject any medicine in my body. When my life was in danger, the hospital called the local Political and Legal Affairs Committee, 610 Office, and my work unit to pay tens of thousands of yuan of hospital fees before releasing me. These units were afraid of taking responsibility and refused to pick me up. When my mother heard the news, she fainted. When she came around, my mother immediately prepared money and asked my father to take my child to the psychiatric hospital to pick me up.
For over 16 years, my mother had to endure a lot of stress because of my arrests. She worked hard to take care of my child from elementary school to college. Some relatives asked her to send my child to my ex-in-laws, but she refused and replied that my child wouldn’t survive because my ex’s family wouldn’t care for the child. My brother and my siblings’ spouses were not rich, and they complained to my mother that she spent a lot of effort and paid education expenses for my child.
Extortion Fails
Once my siblings and many family members came to my parent’s place for a sumptuous family meal to celebrate my father’s birthday. My brother demanded a request from our mother, “Mother, you have paid so much for my sister. She carries a bag and distributes Falun Dafa brochures all day long instead of helping you at work. I don’t think she should be allowed to enter the house anymore! If she comes, I will leave!”
Many relatives and friends were silent, knowing that my mother only had one son out of six children. Unexpectedly, my mother replied firmly, “If you want to leave, you can go.” My brother went to another room. None of the relatives and friends went to drag him back, not even his wife and daughter. They all knew that it was legal to believe in Falun Dafa and to distribute the materials. A few minutes later, my brother returned to the table and remained quiet.
Although my parents have pensions and my father still runs a shop, my mother lives a very simple life. She asked me to use the money she saved to help people. I told her that I would use the money to buy paper and CDs, print the facts about Falun Dafa, and distribute them to people so they can be saved after knowing that Falun Dafa is good. My mother happily agreed with the usage.
A few years ago, my mother suddenly had a stroke and couldn’t take care of herself. I suggested that she learn Falun Dafa with me. My brothers and sisters wanted me to live with her, to care for her. However, my mother knew that I was busy distributing Falun Dafa materials to help save people, so she didn’t want me to move in with her. She wrapped the Falun Dafa amulet in a few small handkerchiefs and put it in her pocket carefully. She asked my brother and younger sisters to watch her administer an intravenous drip. When she could not sleep at night, she recited sincerely over and over: “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
Within a few days, her condition improved and she no longer needed IV drips. She felt better without injections and medicines, so she decided to stop taking them or going to the hospital. My mother asked my sister and me to read the Dafa books to her. It wasn’t long before she could walk without a crutch and take care of herself again.
With the Chinese New Year approaching, we all wrote greetings to Master Li Hongzhi. My mother also solemnly wished Master a Happy New Year and thanked him for saving her life. I asked my mother how to address her. She responded, “You have been learning Dafa for many years and I have just started to learn.” I am glad that my mother regarded herself as a new Dafa practitioner.
My mother never attended school, so she was illiterate, and could not even recognize her name. She enjoys listening to her daughters reading Zhuan Falun to her very much. However, we distribute materials to clarify the facts every day in addition to going to work and doing household chores, so we don’t have too much time to read to her. Instead, I gave her Hong Yin and thought it would be good for her to see the pictures in the book. A few days later, I asked my mother if she had read the poems in Hong Yin. Surprisingly, she read the book every day and could understand it too.
Usually, when my father goes to the store, my mother stays home by herself. She has a hard time remembering how to answer a call from a cell phone. For her to listen to Master’s lectures, I saved the recordings on a small speaker for her to listen to. She learned how to use the speaker after I taught her once, and she began to listen to the Dafa lectures every day. Every time before listening, she washed her hands and face and sat down to listen respectfully. After she finished, she would wrap up the small speaker in a new white handkerchief and put it away carefully.
My parents have supported us in practicing Falun Dafa and protected the Dafa books and materials for many years, so they have been blessed by Dafa. At close to 80 years old they enjoy good health and receive a pension every month.
When my mother was young, she lived in poverty and suffered from illnesses that made her life miserable. She was lucky to encounter Falun Dafa and embark on a new journey. My father still runs a shop, supplies goods, and manages the business by himself. People in our area envy my parents for living a healthy and happy life in their old age.
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