We Are Our Children’s Sky: Elderly Woman Strives to Help Her Daughter Amidst the Persecution

(Minghui.org) After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, those who ran the place where I worked (a state-owned enterprise) told all their employees to indicate if they agreed or not with the CCP persecuting Falun Gong. Many people protected themselves by saying “I approve” while I said, “I disapprove.”

I was once taken to the factory director’s office for a talk after tearing down a propaganda poster slandering Falun Gong at the factory’s main entrance. I said, “Falun Gong teaches people to be good and does not allow killing or committing suicide. What is being promoted on TV are lies—propaganda to defame Falun Gong.”

Another time, at a big meeting, the chief of security said, “No Falun Gong practitioner in our factory went to Beijing this year.” I knew that I had to say something. I stood up and said, “Chief, Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing to appeal. It is their right as citizens!” All the leaders were present and he quickly ended the meeting as he felt he had lost face.

Management wanted to send me to the provincial brainwashing center since I did not agree with them on the Falun Gong issue.

At 6 a.m. on a winter day in 2002, the police knocked on my door. Only my mother and I were there, so I asked who they were and what they wanted. One officer said they were from the Domestic Security Division and were looking for me. He told me to open up, but my mother told him to show his ID first. He didn’t show his ID and just continued to knock on the door. We didn’t open the door, and I sent forth righteous thoughts. At 8 a.m. when it was time for me to go to work, I called the chief and asked why were they looking for me. He said that they wanted me to go to some classes in the province. I said, “I won’t go. I have worked hard and made so many contributions to the factory. You will face retribution for treating me like this.” Then I hung up.

Later, several leaders and more officers came and started shouting downstairs. They had a fire brigade ladder and threatened to come through my window to arrest me if I refused to open the door. My mother was very worried and called the chief of the local police department. She told him, “This house is under my name. My daughter didn’t violate any laws. With so many police shouting downstairs, my neighbors are watching. I have been a doctor for 30 years. This is having a bad impact on my family. I want to sue them for harassment.” Eventually, the police were afraid of leaving a bad impression and did not dare do anything further.

My mother quickly made us something to eat and said we should eat first. By noon, we still had not opened the door. By then, most of the officers had left, leaving only about two people on guard downstairs. After we had our lunch, my mother told me to leave quickly while she went to the window to talk to them to divert their attention. She gave me all the cash and bank cards we had at home, leaving herself only 50 yuan.

Some of our neighbors were walking up and down the stairs just then, so I took a chance and ran out and got a taxi. I went to a practitioner’s house. She said I had to leave. She bought some towels and a toothbrush and gave me a copy of Zhuan Falun. With that, I left my hometown.

Meanwhile, my mother was still at the window of our apartment, chatting with the security staff from my workplace. She asked them how old they were and if they wanted any water. After a while, she assumed I had left and went inside to make sure. She quickly closed the door when she noticed that I hadn’t done so when I left. She thought that she shouldn’t let anyone know that I’d already left or the police would stop and check the cars and trains and then I would have difficulty getting away. My mother closed the curtains. That night, people from my workplace and police officers guarded the units at both ends of my building. To give me more time to relocate safely, my mother didn’t leave home for three days.

On the third day, a neighbor asked if she needed anything. She told the neighbor to ask the man who sold apples to come over because she wanted to buy some. She also asked the man to buy her some vegetables.

I called a friend after I left and asked him to let my mother know I’d gotten away. My mother was relieved.

After another day passed, the section chief of my workplace and the police came again. When my mother opened the door, they asked for me. She said, “There were so many of you standing guard downstairs yet you didn’t see her. I was asleep—how would I know when she left?” Hearing this, they had no choice but to leave.

I was forced to live away from home. Since I couldn’t return home, my mother said we would have to make “a home away from home.” Let me explain. My mother was a doctor who had graduated from a famous university and worked in a hospital for 30 years. When she retired 20 years ago, one of her colleagues who was also retired planned to go work some place else—and planned to leave in two days. Mother asked her colleague where was she going and said, “Buy a ticket for me, too!” Her colleague thought she was joking and asked if she was serious. She replied, “When have I ever lied?” That was how my mother left and went to another place, leaving the apartment to me.

Initially, my mother worked as a B-ultrasound doctor in a maternity hospital. Not used to the foreign place, she got sick. She was advised to go home but she kept quiet and put herself on an IV. She thought to herself that she had to carry on. Not long after that, she rented a place and asked me to come live with her. I was also worried about her being on her own and moved in. I found a job that didn’t pay much but at least we could take care of each other. Two years later, we bought a second-hand house with two bedrooms and a living room. We settled down in this city, creating what my mother said was “A home away from home.” 

One day in 2015, a few other practitioners and I went to the market to distribute Falun Gong materials and persuade people to quit the CCP. When we returned to our car afterward, the police stopped the practitioner who was driving. All of us were taken to the police station.

That night, my mother noticed that I hadn’t returned home and called a practitioner who’d gone with me. She heard a man pick up the phone and knew that something bad had happened to us. It was nearly midnight. She quickly packed up two printers, a computer, and Falun Gong books and moved them out. Then she packed up and moved our other belongings. It was raining, but she worked throughout the night. By 6 a.m. the next day, her clothes were wet but she thought to herself that she shouldn’t let anyone see her. Very late that night, she took the Falun Gong materials and went to a quiet place to burn them. She was already in her 70s and was trembling as she did all this on her own. But for my sake, she persevered.

My mother and another practitioner’s mother then went to the police station to ask for our release. There were many guards, and she was denied entry. When she saw a staff person enter, she followed behind, but was chased out. Seeing what the sign on the wall said (“Serving the people, the police and people are one family”), she said, “Erase those words on the wall and then I will leave. What do you mean ‘the police and people are one family?’ I am an old lady. What are you afraid of? I am here because you arrested my daughter. Otherwise, why would I be?” Those people softened their attitude and someone came to take care of her.

My mother came to try to see me three times, and each time she would reason with them and ask for my release. Twice she brought me clothes and asked the staff to take them to me. However, they couldn’t because they were not a member of my family. It was not until the day of our hearing that the staff told my mother I’d never gotten the clothes and asked if she wanted them back. She said, “Of course. We aren’t rich.” That person told my mother to wait and he would drive them over to her. 

When I was in the detention center, my mother sent me money, and I had more than anyone else inside. I was later sentenced to three years, and my mother visited me almost every month. Even the guard said, “Falun Gong family members are not like the families of other inmates. They still treat you so well even though you ended up in prison.” I said, “That’s because they know that we are good people and that we have been treated unfairly.”

I was persecuted again later and imprisoned for a year. The police made things difficult for my mother, and it took her several attempts to get the detention warrant. It was difficult and tiring, but she never told me about it.

Once, my mother told the police, “Do you know what a mother is? A mother is her children’s sky, her children’s mountain. The sky protects them from the wind and rain, and the mountain is solid, something they can rely on.” The police were won over after hearing this. I am very grateful to my mother for her companionship and support along the way, which has enabled me to get to where I am today.

My mother is 80 years old now. She has been blessed for protecting Dafa practitioners. Her body is strong, her hair remains black, and she does not need dentures. She walks quickly and speaks with lots of energy.