A year after quake, grief remains, hope regained in China´s Sichuan

Source: Xinhua | 05-12-2009 19:26

by Xinhua writer Zhou Yan

BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Huang Changrong still has that faraway look on her face.

From time to time, she'd wonder who that two-month-old baby is: has the time machine reversed and brought her back to the days when she was still a young mother, or is it the grandchild she never met?

Exactly a year ago, Huang lost her daughter in the devastating earthquake that destroyed their homes in Mianzhu City of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

"Had she not been pregnant, she'd have easily survived. She used to be so agile," Huang said. Her daughter, 22, was to give birth in three months when she was caught in the rubble of her fourth-story apartment building.

Now at 42, Huang became mother again. She constantly got confused, thinking it was actually her grandchild.

The baby son has come as a pleasant surprise, as well as a headache for Huang and her husband Wang Xinglin, 48. "When he grows up and gets married, we'll be nearly 70 -- too old to help him build home or bring up his children," said Huang.

In China, particularly the countryside, parents feel it's their duty to finance the weddings and new homes of grown-up sons and take care of grandchildren.