The United States and Laos promised to settle in China for ChinaYear.
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We are very grateful for your support. In 1999, an old American lady in her 80s resolutely sold her property in order to fulfill a promise she made in her childhood and set foot on Chinese soil alone.
During her 13 years in China, she planted fruit trees, donated money to schools and substitute for teachers, helped hospitals with training, and actively donated money to help when disasters strike. This lovely and venerable old American devoted the last days of her life to China.
At the last moment of her life, Mu Linai's grandmother chose to sleep on the land of China, so what was the promise she made to Zhou Renjie back then? What makes her so attached to the land?
Let's explore the story of Mu Linai, an old man who touched China, and pursue the promise and emotion that spanned more than half a century.
Memories are eternal, promises are eternal. Even if the years go by, it can't erase my thoughts of you. More than half a century has passed, and I still stick to my promise to you, and I will definitely return to China to find you.
However, to this day, the only memory I have is the days when we grew up with Zhou Renjie in Liaocheng. In pursuit of that friendship that transcends nationalities, I turned to **.
The staff of Liaocheng ** were surprised by this incident, they rummaged through the household registration records of Liaocheng, and finally found the information of the old man Zhou Renjie. Although I received a letter from China and learned that the old man Zhou Renjie had passed away, I still shed tears of sadness.
Even though my friend is gone, my thoughts of you will never change. "
Zhou Renjie's children still live in Liaocheng, and they spend every day in a happy and peaceful atmosphere, which makes Mu Linai feel a little comforted. Recalling the childhood spent with Zhou Renjie, it was the only bright color in the twilight, which was particularly precious.
Although she is in the United States, she was actually born and raised in China. When her father, Mu Hongen, crossed the ocean to China in 1904, he met Martha, an American girl, on a passenger liner.
On the vast ocean, the passenger liner is like an island, and months of drifting at sea make them rely on each other and fall in love. After arriving in China, they soon married and settled in Beidaihe.
Mu Hongen began to carry out his missionary mission, and the family was full of laughter and laughter because of the arrival of the children.
In August 1917, Mu Linai came to the world. When she was a baby, she and her parents moved to Liaocheng, Shandong. Her father, Mu Hongen, built a church there to better spread the gospel.
Liaocheng is the first place where Mu Lin loves to contact the world, and in her memory, her father always greeted congregants from different backgrounds in front of the high church, and these yellow ** children also quickly accepted this doll from a foreign country.
Mu Linai and Zhou Renjie are childhood sweethearts, Zhou Renjie lives in Liumiao Village, Liaocheng, they are of the same age, when Zhou Renjie was a child, he always went to the church to play with this beautiful white girl.
The memories of my childhood are the best times in my life, and a deep friendship has been formed between the carefree Mu Linai and Zhou Renjie. However, at that time, China was plagued by war and suffering, and Mu Linai saw more and more people suffering from hunger and cold, and even some children were not clothed, which made her deeply frightened.
In order to help those who are helpless, Mu Linai followed her father to the surrounding villages to preach and persuade her, and she wanted to do her part to change all this when she saw the hardships of the villagers' lives.
However, the outbreak of war left her in fear every day, with no hope in sight. However, Mu Linai did not give up, because she always remembered the help of the villagers when she was a child, and she began to think about how to give back to them and let the villagers live a better life.
New copywriting: In 1930, Mu Lin Ai was 13 years old. Her father completed his mission, but the situation was dire and they had to move back to the United States. Mu Lin was reluctant to leave her partner who had grown up with her, crying and holding the hands of her friends, unwilling to leave China.
Zhou Renjie, Mu Linai's eldest brother, persuaded her to leave as soon as possible for her safety. Mu Linai said goodbye to her childhood with tears, and although they agreed to see each other again, she didn't know if she would ever see her again.
On the passenger ship, Mu Lin Ai was depressed by homesickness, and even lost her appetite. Seeing his daughter's thin appearance, Mu Hongen took out a precious **.
This ** not only soothed Mu Linai's homesickness, but also allowed people to see the precious moments in that time. When Mu Hongen returned from the United States as a missionary, he brought with him many novelties that the local villagers had never seen before, such as binoculars and cameras.
One day in 1918, Mu Hongen wanted to take pictures of his daughter, and it happened that Mu Linai was taken to Zhou Renjie's house to play. On a whim, he took this group photo of Zhou Renjie and his mother.
After this ** was washed out, Mu Hongen kept it until today it was passed to Mu Linai. What is amazing is that this ** has been preserved for a lifetime, and when it is taken out again many years later, things are not people, only that good memory will remain in my heart forever.
Mu Linai is a native American, but she has always been close to her friends in China. Under the influence of American education, she gradually grew up, and at the same time, she did not forget her Chinese roots.
She successfully completed her Master of Science in Nursing at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and earned her Ph.D. over the next three years. Grace Eyre became an excellent angel in white, working for the Children's Hospital in Colorado.
She cherishes the fond memories of her time in China, and through hard work and continuous improvement of her skills, she looks forward to one day using her medical skills to help her friends in China. In 1941, she met and fell in love with Edwin, a native of America, and her family life began.
Not only did she successfully raise 4 children, but she also rose from internship to director of the hospital.
She and Edwin have lived together for many years, during which time she has repeatedly expressed her desire to visit relatives and friends in China. But because of the war and the young age of the child, Edwin kept vetoing her idea.
It wasn't until 1977 that Mu Linai retired, and relations between China and the United States began to ease, and she once again expressed her desire to go to China. However, Edwin still couldn't understand her persistence and rejected her again.
Despite this, Mu Linai still misses her hometown, cares about China's development, and looks forward to one day returning to the place she misses day and night.
After receiving the reply from Liaocheng City, Mu Linai couldn't wait to dig out the ** that had been treasured for half a century, and her childhood partner was no longer there, and she hoped to take this opportunity to meet his family and fulfill the promise of that era.
That night, Mu Linai took the letter and again proposed to Edwin the idea of returning home to visit. This time, when she saw Edwin crying as he watched his childhood friend cry, Edwin fell into deep thought, he held Mu Linai's hand tightly, nodded and agreed to her request.
In fact, Edwin has been quietly watching China all these years, marveling at how the Chinese people can build the country so strong in just a few decades, and his curiosity drives him to see it for himself.
After a more than 10-hour flight journey, in November 1992, Mu Linai once again set foot on Chinese soil. She went straight to Liaocheng non-stop, and had already contacted Liaocheng ** and contacted Zhou Renjie's family in advance.
Zhou Renjie's daughter Zhou Baoling was very surprised by this, it turned out that her father's childhood friend had always remembered her. Mu Linai and the translator accompanied the two old men to Zhou Baoling's house.
Looking at the table of Shandong dishes specially prepared by the daughter of the Zhou family, the old man's tears suddenly fell, this is the taste of her hometown that she has missed for a long time. In front of Zhou Renjie's posthumous photo, Mu Linai lit incense candles in accordance with Chinese customs to comfort Zhou Renjie's soul in the sky, and also fulfilled her promise back then.
At the dining table, the reunion of the family made Mu Linai look forward to it for a long time. She took out a piece of Zhou Renjie's ** from her arms and handed it to Zhou Baoling. "This is your father's childhood **, he is my brother, and we are a family from now on. ”
Zhou Baoling was very surprised, she had never seen her grandmother and her father when she was young, and this ** was enough to prove that the two families were very close back then. In order to better inherit this family affection, Zhou Baoling deliberately found a photo studio and remade many ** photos and sent them to every child and grandchild of Zhou Renjie.
Accompanied by Zhou Baoling, Mu Linai and Edwin visited many corners of Liaocheng, which are her childhood memories. Although the war destroyed the old appearance, the new China gave Liaocheng new vitality.
Looking at this vibrant city, Mu Linai couldn't help but exclaim, she had witnessed the devastated old society, and now here, the mountains and rivers are beautiful, the people are beautiful, and everything is even better.
What is gratifying is that Liaocheng ** specially looked for the residents who lived near the church for Mu Linai, and found several old people who were still alive, who were Mu Linai's childhood friends.
Watching these old people crying, seeing them again, and listening to their stories over the years, Mu Linai seems to have really returned to her hometown, and she also deeply feels that her roots are always here.
After visiting friends in Liaocheng Stub, Mu Linai specially took Edwin to visit Beijing, the Three Gorges, Hainan and Guilin, and they went deep into the mountains and rivers to feel the great changes of the motherland.
A week later, Mu Linai flew back to the United States with nostalgia and reluctance, bringing back many Chinese gifts to her children and grandchildren, and sharing what she saw and heard in China. Everyone thought that she would not think about it again after returning to China, but Mu Linai often looked at the ** taken in China, and her heart still deeply yearned for China, and this time, she hoped to settle down in China.
At the end of the day, I belong to China! In August 1998, her husband Edwin, who had been with her for half a century, passed away, and Mu Linai, who was in her late teens, felt that she could finally achieve her wish.
In October 1999, she wrote to Liaocheng City again, hoping to move to China to live, not for enjoyment, but to use her own hands to do practical things in the most difficult mountain villages, and bring hope to the people in her hometown.
Liaocheng ** was deeply moved by the old man's deep emotion, and immediately replied that he would properly arrange her life in China. In November 1999, Mu Linai cashed in a villa in the United States and 40 acres of mountain forest, and set foot on Chinese land alone with the reluctance of her children.
With gray hair, her wish for many years has been realized, and she said excitedly: "China, I'm back!" Mu Linai liked life in rural Shandong very much, so she was placed in Zhou Renjie's hometown of Liumiao Village.
Considering that she is 82 years old, Liaocheng ** specially arranged a warm small courtyard for her, and is equipped with water, electricity, air conditioning and other facilities, so that the life of the elderly is very convenient.
Since Mu Linai had forgotten Chinese, ** also assigned her a translator, which was provided to the elderly for free in the village.
Mu Linai received help from **, for which she is deeply grateful, but she firmly believes that nothing will be lost. She personally took the interpreter to the bank to withdraw the money and sent it to the village committee to replenish the funds.
From that moment on, Mu Linai took root in rural China. She began to dance and exercise with old Chinese ladies, and even rode a small tricycle and wore a headscarf every time she went out to buy groceries, who would recognize her as an old American lady?
After settling down, Mu Linai devoted herself wholeheartedly to philanthropy. At that time, Liumiao Village was preparing to build a pear jujube base, but the situation was very difficult due to the lack of funds of the village committee.
After Mu Linai learned of this situation, she immediately took out 300,000 yuan to the collective. At the same time, she also sent high-yield crop seeds and the latest planting technology books through American friends to help the villagers get rich as soon as possible.
The conditions of Liumiao Village Primary School were difficult, but Mu Linai took the initiative to lend a helping hand and purchased computers, books and other items to create a better learning environment for the children. Not only that, she also volunteered to be a free English teacher at the school, guiding the children to experience various foreign cultures and stimulating their enthusiasm for English learning.
Mu Lin has always cherished the belief of giving back what she has learned to her hometown, and is willing to help local English teachers improve their teaching ability while teaching children.
Thanks to her selfless dedication, the school was renamed China-US Friendship Primary School, and Mu Linai became the school's honorary principal. Although the name of the school has changed several times over the years, the logo of the China-US Friendship Primary School has never been taken down.
In addition to teaching English, she often goes to Liaocheng International Peace Hospital to share her medical experience in the United States, and is warmly welcomed by medical staff. In 2000, she was appointed honorary director of the hospital.
Since 2001, Wang Yuqing, a girl from Liaocheng, has become a full-time translator for Mu Linai as soon as she graduates, and is responsible for taking care of the daily life of the elderly.
Mu Linai, a philanthropist, lives a simple life and takes care of the elderly in the village, often paying for cataract surgeries for them. Her courtyard is always open, and the children like to come here to play and listen to her tell foreign stories, and the old people often talk to her and listen to her sing Chinese opera.
Although she lives in the countryside, her care and attention does not stop there, and she always pays attention to the news from all over China.
Mu Linai, an old man from the United States, has always been concerned about China's development, from SARS to Wenchuan**, every major disaster in China, she empathizes, and will urge Wang Yuqing to help translate the situation in the disaster area and find channels to donate money to support the disaster area.
Her boundless spirit of love has touched many people, and in 2007 she was selected into the shortlist of moving Chinese characters and was widely recognized. Now, her only wish is to get a green card in China, so that she can stay in China for a long time and no longer have to travel between China and the United States for a visa.
China is the most populous country in the world, so the application control for foreign immigrants is very strict, and the application requirements are quite high. As a result, the "Chinese Green Card" is internationally known as one of the hardest green cards to obtain.
On July 24, 2009, Ms. Mu Linai became the first "special talent" in Shandong because of her outstanding contributions in China, and finally obtained the coveted "Chinese permanent residence qualification" as she wished.
For her, this news is undoubtedly a moment when a lifelong expectation has finally come true. At the moment when she got her green card, she was so excited that she held Wang Yuqing's hand tightly, but her excitement made her unable to express her feelings in words.
Wang Yuqing and Mu Linai have been together for more than ten years, she regards Mu Linai as her own relatives, even if someone digs her, she does not leave.
After getting married, she brought her husband to Liaocheng to work and accompany the elderly to realize their Chinese dreams. However, on April 28, 2013, Mu Linai's life suddenly ended.
She died of multiple organ failure due to coronary heart disease at the age of 96. This news made the old man feel extremely sad and regretful.
Wang Yuqing looked at the old man on the hospital bed sadly, unwilling to believe that this had become a fact. Holding back tears, she contacted the old man's children and informed them about the old man's funeral in China.
On May 2, 2013, in the Liaocheng Funeral Home, the farewell ceremony of the remains of Mu Linai was held as scheduled. At the ceremony, Wang Yuqing conveyed the old man's last wishes: "Mu Linai signed a body donation letter before her death, and she hopes that her body can make a final contribution to China's medical ......."”
After the initial shock, the old man's children accepted their mother's final decision, and at this moment they deeply understood their mother's deep love for China. In the first 13 years of her life, she enjoyed a cheerful childhood, and in the last 13 years of her life, she gave her all for China.
During her time in China, Mu Linai donated more than 350,000 yuan to Liaocheng, not including her donations to various places during natural and man-made disasters.
The "News Network" of the day broadcast the deeds of the old man, and her contribution to China is worth remembering by everyone. Mu Lin loves the old man with nearly a century of Chinese dream to witness the rapid development of modern China.
We are glad to see that there are still people in the China she loves, and we are grateful for the selfless dedication of this international friend. As she wished, China is now prosperous and peaceful.
What do you want to say about Mu Lin's love for the elderly? Please share your views in the comments section!