(Minghui.org) When Ms. Yu Shuhui’s son visited her at the Chongqing Women’s Prison on June 9, 2025, he was saddened to see that his once healthy and energetic mother had become emaciated and haggard. To make things worse, his father died two days later on June 11, 2025.
The family’s ordeal stemmed from Ms. Yu’s arrest on the evening of January 23, 2024, for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999. The 60-year-old Chongqing resident was held at the Dadukou District Detention Center and sentenced to 3.5 years by the Jiulongpo District Court on December 27, 2024. She appealed with the Chongqing Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold her original verdict.
Ms. Yu was admitted to the Chongqing Women’s Prison in March 2025. Not long after, the prison called her son and told him that Ms. Yu had swollen lymph nodes in her neck.
When Ms. Yu’s son was finally allowed to visit her on June 9, 2025, the first time after her arrest, he was shocked to see that she was a completely different person. Once an upbeat woman full of energy, she was now emaciated, haggard, and in low spirits.
The young man also worried about his dying father, who remained in serious condition despite treatments and had just been transferred from the intensive care unit to the hospice unit. The older man passed away in the hospital on June 11, 2025. He was in his 70s. With the help of his family and friends, the heart-broken son managed to complete the funeral for his father.
Ms. Yu’s husband had been sick for many years before she was arrested. Living in the mountainous area, the elderly couple didn’t have any pension to live on, but still had to grow peppercorn to make a living. Although she was already in her late 50s, Ms. Yu could still carry over 100 pounds of peppercorn up and down the hill. Meanwhile, she also took on the majority of household chores and left only some light work to her husband.
After Ms. Yu was arrested in January 2024, her husband had to start working in the field. Even his ailing sister, who was in her 80s, had to come help to pick peppercorn.
In May 2025, after over a year of hard work, Ms. Yu’s husband’s health completely collapsed. Knowing that he may not have many days left, he applied to visit Ms. Yu in prison, but was rejected. He died weeks later, without seeing Ms. Yu for the last time.
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