(Minghui.org) A customs officer stared at the photo in Ms. Xiaoqing Yang's passport as she returned to Vancouver in 2011. “Is this you?” he asked, looking between her and her passport photo.

Ms. Yang was in her 60s, but she now looked years younger than the passport photo she had taken in 2007. She was returning to Canada after an almost two-year stay in Guangzhou. She had been helping her son and his wife take care of her grandchild. The customs officer questioned her for half an hour before letting her pass.

Photo of Ms. Yang Xiaoqing on her passport taken in 2007Ms. Yang in September 2015

Her youthful appearance has surprised many others. Bus drivers have asked her for ID when she gave them her senior card because they didn't believe she was 67.

She attributes her youthful appearance to the outcome of a chance meeting.

One afternoon shortly after she arrived in Guangzhou in 2009, a woman came up to her, said a few words, and gave Ms. Yang her phone number. They parted ways, but Ms. Yang's curiosity was sparked and she called the lady later that day.

The lady, Ms. Cai, invited Ms. Yang to her home, where Ms. Yang learned about Falun Gong and the persecution. Ms. Cai also gave Ms. Yang some Falun Gong books to read. Another practitioner later gave Ms. Yang the main book of Falun Gong, Zhuan Falun.

“I kept reading the book at my son's home,” she said. “The more I read, the more I liked to read it. I gained new understandings every day.”

Ms. Yang followed the teachings of Falun Gong to improve her character and her morality. She gradually rid herself of a short temper.

“I remember Master Li's teachings and look inward in conflicts. It was hard initially, because I used to look for external reasons or make excuses for myself. In time I changed and am now mild mannered and kind,” Ms. Yang said.

Ms. Yang is the oldest of five children. Her parents were persecuted by the Communist Party when she was young, so she had to help her grandmother take care of her younger brothers and sisters in a remote village for several years. Ms. Yang became very domineering.

“I was sick a lot from the time I was young,” she recalled. “I inherited thalassemia from my father. My hemoglobin level was sometimes as low as 6 gm/dL (the normal range for adult women is 12-16). My blood pressure was very low, and I often fainted. I had cramps, heart and lung problems, and hyperthyroidism.” She also had renal atrophy in her left kidney.

Her husband died of liver cancer when she was 34. She had a hard time taking care of her two children. She worked hard to make money for her family while she studied English. She immigrated to Vancouver in 1996 to start a new life, but her illnesses lingered.

She said that, since she started to practice Falun Gong she has kept positive thoughts and seldom lets her mind wander or dwell on issues. Her illnesses seemed to disappear as soon as she took up the practice. She became healthy and energetic. Her younger brother summed it up well when he said, “My sister has completely changed.”

Other members of her family and her friends were also stunned by her physical and mental improvements. Several of them also started to practice Falun Gong.

Miraculous Recovery from a Traffic Accident

Ms. Yang went shopping in Guangzhou during the summer of 2010. Officers in an Urban Administrative Enforcement Bureau vehicle were pursuing a hawker when they hit her from behind. She was thrown to the ground and was bleeding profusely. She had a large bump on the back of her head. She was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital. Her left leg was fractured and doctors recommended surgery. She was transferred to another hospital for the operation.

A doctor looked at the X-ray film and said, “That's strange. The bone is fractured severely but not dislocated.” Ms. Yang understood that it was because she practiced Falun Gong. Though she was injured fairly badly, she recalls that she didn't feel that much pain. She asked the doctor for conservative treatment.

She kept reading Zhuan Falun in the hospital as she recovered. She could walk again in three weeks.

She asked to go home after staying in hospital for a month, because she believed she had fully recovered and she felt well. The day she left the hospital, she climbed the stairs to her son's apartment on the sixth floor unaided.