(Minghui.org) I contracted whooping cough when I was six years old. Due to a shortage of doctors and medicine in my village, I only made a partial recovery and was left with a lingering cough and chronic wheezing. Whenever I caught a cold, I would run a fever, cough up phlegm, and have to stay in bed for days. Year after year, I endured immense suffering. I dropped out of school when I was 13 due to coughing up blood for a year.
I married when I was 24 and took along a big bag of medications to my husband’s home. He was worried, because Chinese drugs at that time were ineffective for my condition. For a long time I had been taking expensive drugs imported from Japan. Eventually, I could no longer afford them and had to make do with the ones made in China.
My illness suddenly flared up when I was 27. The burning sensation in my lungs was so intense that I could barely breathe. My husband took me to the local village clinic, but the doctor there advised us to go to the county hospital because I was in critical condition. We could not afford for me to stay in the hospital, so I bought some ampicillin and returned home. After one course of intravenous treatment, there was no improvement in the chest pain. The only way I could cool down and find some relief each day was to eat popsicles. No one thought I would recover, but after a month, I unexpectedly passed this life and death tribulation.
When I was 39, I fell ill from a severe wheezing cough. My husband arranged for a doctor to give me intravenous treatment at home. However, after three courses of different medicines, there was no change in my condition. The doctor then used Chinese medicine. My condition worsened after two rounds of this, and my wheezing cough became more frequent. Eventually the injections were stopped, and I was just given oral medication. It seemed as if my life was nearly at an end.
I wept every day and had visions in another dimension of people in my room all looking at me. It was clearly an ominous sign. I knew I was not long for this world.
With the arrival of the 1997 Chinese New Year, other families were all celebrating, but my home was filled with worry and tears. I felt like giving in to death, but my two young children held my hands and cried. No matter how agonizing and unbearable my life had become, I simply could not abandon them. I could do nothing but to grit my teeth and keep struggling—even in the depths of misery—while teetering on the brink of death.
I was bedridden for three months. A distant uncle came to visit and expressed sympathy as I had only just turned 40. He recommend Falun Gong to me, saying, “My wife practiced it and recovered from a cough. I’ll ask her to teach you.” At the time, I believed I was terminally ill and nothing would help.
In April 1997, that uncle and his wife came to visit and brought a tape player. I had no hope left and merely acknowledged the couple’s kind intentions. I listened to the audio recording of Master’s lecture in Jinan. Then my aunt taught me the exercises. I was very weak, panting and drenched in sweat after standing for only a few minutes. She encouraged me to keep doing as much as I could.
When we started doing the exercises the next day, I said that I had forgotten to take my medicine. She said practitioners don’t need medicine. I was so happy as my stomach hurt from taking so many drugs. I was afraid of feeling cold and wore an extra cloth around belly and back all year round.
My back felt very warm as I was doing the exercises on the third day, so I took off the extra cloth from back. That evening, I experienced alarming physical symptoms—nausea and violent vomiting. I retched up mouthful after mouthful of fluid, eventually expelling half a basin of green liquid with an intensely bitter, astringent taste. Once the vomiting stopped, my distended pot belly instantly flattened, and my breathing became free and easy.
Four days later, the swelling throughout my body had completely disappeared. Seven days later, I had regained my strength. I finally got out of bed and could do simple household chores. Twenty days later, I was able to join my family in the fields to do farm work.
My illnesses were all miraculously healed! My whole family was very happy and full of appreciation for Falun Gong and Master. My husband was so happy that he told everyone he met that, “Falun Gong is miraculous! It cured my wife’s life-threatening illness!”
Relatives and friends witnessed the amazing healing effects of Falun Gong through this experience. They all came to my home to learn Falun Gong. My daughter also started practicing. Overall, several dozen people came to my home to learn the exercises until the persecution started in 1999.
My sister, daughter, and nephew did not waver when faced with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) brutality. They persevered in practicing Dafa. My grandson and an acquaintance of his also started to practice in recent years.
My chronic illness and years of taking medication had been a great financial burden on my family. Our lives completely changed after I started practicing Dafa, and my recovery reduced our expenses significantly. My husband said, “You became healthy after practicing Dafa and saved our family at least 200,000 yuan (about $30,000).”
With no more medical costs, and being able to work alongside my husband, helping with farming and raising pigs, our family rose out of poverty and into prosperity. Around 20 years ago, we built a new house. After another 10 years, with me farming and my husband working for wages, our family’s financial situation continued to steadily improve.
I have practiced Dafa for 29 years now, and my husband has supported me all along. He is in good health, even though he is over 70. He still farms, and has a flock of sheep. He is the most successful farmer in our village. My daughter practices Dafa, and has a happy family. My son supports Dafa and has a good life.
I am nearly 70, but I still assist my husband with farming and do all the cooking. I usually buy our daily necessities by riding my electric scooter to the market. Many people admire me, an elderly woman who rides a scooter. I am blessed to have a happy life thanks to Falun Dafa and Master.
I met a middle-aged woman in a grocery store. She smiled and said, “We haven’t seen each other in over a decade, but you haven’t changed and look youthful.” I was a little puzzled as I did not recognize her, so I asked where she was from.
She said, “I am from the next village. I’ve been away these past years looking after my grandson in Shenyang. I just came back a few days ago. You gave me an amulet that year at my home. Do you remember?”
I finally recalled that she was a distant cousin-in-law of my husband. I had clarified the truth to her whole family, and they all agreed to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. She asked me how old I was, and I told her I was 69. She said, “You don’t look close to 70. You look just a little over 60.”
Another time when I went to the dentist, a well-dressed woman walked up to me and said, “You look so much healthier now. You used to have serious respiratory issues, but now you are fully healed.”
I replied, “I am truly well. I have not taken a single pill for nearly 30 years.” She had a face mask on, so I didn’t recognize her. When she took off her mask, I realized she was my former classmate. We had not seen each other for nearly 20 years. She was slim and in high spirits and good health.
As we talked about our health, I said, “You know I am well because I practice Falun Gong. If not, I would have died long ago.” She said, “I know Falun Gong is good. Someone in my village practices it. She told me about the practice, and I believe it.” I said, “No wonder you look so healthy. You are blessed.” I encouraged her to continue believing in Dafa for a safe future.
When Jiang Zemin, the former head of the CCP, launched the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, the entire state apparatus was mobilized to slander Dafa and suppress practitioners nationwide. We lost our peaceful environment. The police frequently came to harass us and tried to force us to sign a guarantee statement to give up practicing.
Falun Dafa saved me, and Master renewed my life. It would be impossible for me to renounce Falun Gong. I told the police that Dafa saved my life, and that I could not give it up. Whenever they came, I would describe my personal experience of being delivered from a desperate situation after practicing Dafa.
I was later reported for mailing letters to clarify the truth. I stayed away from home for three years to avoid being persecuted. I wrote to the police station to advise them not to participate in the persecution. The police director came to understand my situation and did his best to protect me.
The persecution escalated, and I was arrested three years later and sent to a forced labor camp for two years. I often told the camp guards, “It is a precious opportunity that we have met, and we need to appreciate Master Li. He saved my life. Otherwise, I would have died in 1997.” I told my story to the guards, and two of them quietly said, “After you are released, be careful and don’t get sent back here.”
I wrote a letter to one of the guards describing my personal experience of benefiting from practicing Falun Gong and explaining that it is a righteous Fa that saves people. I advised her to do good deeds to ensure a safe future. She was inspired and had righteous thoughts. Whenever she saw me, she was very happy and we became friends. She helped me on several occasions when some of the other guards wanted to torture me. She told me to be cautious and have wisdom. She also treated other practitioners well, including over 100 practitioners incarcerated in that forced labor camp.
During the past 20 years since I was released from that labor camp, I have continued to clarify the truth to people. Many were blessed after understanding what I shared with them.
The owner of a small supermarket saw her business flourish after learning that Falun Gong is good and the persecution is wrong, expanding into a two-story shop, a good-sized local supermarket.
An 83-year-old relative came to believe in Master and Dafa. She was suffering from the aftereffects of a stroke but now no longer needs a wheelchair and can take care of herself at the age of 90.
Falun Dafa liberated me from intense suffering and agony during the first half of my life and completely renewed me. I am now in excellent health. Falun Dafa is a righteous Fa that offers salvation. Even though the CCP has persecuted the practice for 27 years, Falun Gong has spread to over 100 countries. More than 459 million Chinese have withdrawn from the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
I hope the remaining people who have been misled by the CCP’s atheistic ideology are awakening and quit the CCP for a bright future.
(Selected submission in celebration of 2026 World Falun Dafa Day in Minghui.org))