[Selected Submission] Great Daughter-in-Law

(Minghui.org) Before I became a practitioner of Falun Dafa, I was very self-centered. If someone didn't disappoint me, I wouldn't disappoint them either. However, if someone let me down, I would also let them down for sure. Nevertheless, I felt that I was fair to others.

Both my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law work in the city. My brother is a cadre, so he has a good life. I live in the countryside. My husband is a laborer, and I don't have a job. When my mother-in-law reached 78 years of age, she developed rheumatoid arthritis throughout her body. Her joints became deformed; she was bed-ridden and needed someone to take care of her around the clock.

My sister-in-law said to me: “Both of us work everyday, and my child lives on campus. Therefore, we don't have anybody here to take care of her. Moreover, if she passes away, it would be very hard for us to prepare for her funeral because we live in an apartment building.” The meaning behind this was that they wanted me and my husband to take care of my mother-in-law. I challenged her by saying: “What? If people who live in an apartment building die, their families can't prepare for their funerals? She has two sons. She should stay with one family for one month and another family for another month. If she happens to pass away while she is living with us, we will be the ones who will be preparing for her funeral. Isn't that fair?”

At first, my mother-in-law stayed at my brother's home, and two of her daughters took turns to care for her. Within a week, however, my sister-in-law had a huge fight with the family, and as a result, my mother-in-law only stayed with the two daughters from then on.

In February 1998, I was fortunate enough to begin practicing Falun Dafa. I finally came to understand what it meant to be a good person, which is, to follow the standard of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. This is the true standard. When thinking about the hard life my mother-in-law was enduring, I stopped worrying about the consequences of taking her home, and asked her daughters to have her come to my home and begin to practice Dafa with me.

Because of her illnesses, my mother-in-law couldn't use chopsticks and could hardly move her arms. Her two daughters and I took turns to care for her. I was feeding her three times a day everyday. I also helped comb her hair, wash her face, wash her hands and deal with her bowel movements. Sometimes she had her bowel movement in her pants, but I didn't complain about that. I taught her the five set of exercises and read Dafa books to her, hoping that she could quickly recover and not be tormented by illnesses.

The miraculousness of Dafa quickly manifested through my mother-in-law. Soon, she could comb her own hair, wash her own face and eat meals by herself. Prior to that, she didn't have a good appetite and could not sleep well, but now she ate and slept well. Previously, when there was a weather change, her bones would ache. After she began to practice, however, no matter how the weather changed, she was not affected by it. When the weather was nice, I took her outside to enjoy the sunshine.

Seeing how well my mother-in-law was being treated, local villagers said to me: “She suffered for so long, but now she has run into this good fortune in her old age. It's because of having a great daughter-in-law who practices Falun Dafa.”

My mother-in-law had five siblings and more than a few dozens relatives. When they came to visit her, I treated them with delicious food and helped them to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations. Over the last six months of her life, when she was completely bed-ridden, her two daughters and I took care of her. The family's sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters frequently came to my home, and every time they came over, they made a big mess in my home. Seeing that, I tried to control myself and not let go of my temper, which had been impossible for me to do in the past. At the age of 85, my mother-in-law passed away in peace. Because Falun Dafa is a practice that cultivates both mind and body, when my mother-in-law's body was left at home for nine days following her death, her face showed a fair and rosy complexion, as if she were sleeping. Everyone who saw that thought it was truly miraculous.

After the funeral, my sister-in-law wanted to split my mother-in-law's inheritance in half and to give me half of it, but I told her to take it all. When mother-in-law's other two daughters gave me 1,000 yuan each to cover the funeral expenses, I also declined.

Because of a misunderstanding in the past, I hadn't talked to my sister-in-law for 20 years. After my mother-in-law passed away, she kept inviting me to come over to her home. When the holidays came, she had her children come over to bring me some gifts. She came to my home sometimes as well. This year, my sister-in-law also began to practice Falun Dafa. I bought her a copy of Zhuan Falun, an MP3 player, and an exercise instruction DVD. Now all my relatives think very highly of me, and whenever they have any fresh items, they want to give some to me. One time, my sister-in-law bought some premium mushrooms. She mentioned that it cost her more than 200 yuan per pound. No matter how hard I resisted, she insisted on giving some to me.

People who used to say that I was silly for practicing Falun Dafa have stopped saying that. Instead, they now say that people who practice Falun Dafa are wonderful. Because of Dafa, I was able to bring beauty to the people of the world.

From the Call for Submissions to Commemorate the Twentieth Anniversary of Falun Dafa's Introduction