A Mom’s Final Message
The worst earthquake in 32 years hit Sichuan province, China on May 12, 2008. The rescue and recovery work is still ongoing. I want to share with whoever come to this website the following picture story about a mom and her message to her son she left in her cell phone while dying from the collapsing of the building where they were.
When the rescue team discovered her, she was already dead. She was crushed by the house that collapsed. Through the debris and destruction, you can see the position in which she died. She was kneeling, with her whole body in a forward position, using her hands to support her body. It is somewhat similar to how people pray in the olden days, except that her body has somewhat changed its shaped, and it looks a little scary.
The rescue worker squeezed his hand through all the debris just to confirm that she’s dead. He shouted a few times, using his baton to knock a few times on the bricks.. but there was no response inside. When the crowd walked to the next building, the team leader suddenly ran back again, shouting, “come quickly!!!” He came to her dead body, and used all his might to feel under the woman’s body. He seems to have felt something.. then he shouted, “there’s someone, there’s a child, still alive”.
After some struggle, the team and volunteers helped to clear all the debris apart, and took out her child from under her body. He was wrapped in a red blanket with yellow floral patterns. He’s about 3 or 4 months old. Because of his mother’s protection, he was completely unscathed. When they carried him out, he was still sleeping peacefully. His sleeping face warmed everyone’s heart. The accompanying doctor performed some checks on him, and found a hand phone inside the blanket. He read the screen and found that it wrote the following, all entered in the phone. “My dearest child, if you are able to survive, you must remember that I love you”. The doctor who has experienced many births and deaths in life through his career, cried too at this moment. The phone was passed around. Everyone who saw it couldn’t help shedding tears either. (Source: Xinhua Internet Discussion Forum)
Background information:
On Monday, May 12, at 2.28 p.m. Beijing time (6:28 GMT), a major earthquake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, jolted southwestern China’s Sichuan Province.
The confirmed death toll from the disaster has risen to 32,476 by 2:00pm Sunday, May 17, 2008, and the toll would possibly rise to more than 50,000 as many, still buried in rubbles, are feared dead.
And on Sunday, China Seismological Bureau Sunday revised the magnitude of the earthquake from 7.8 to 8.0 on the Richter scale.
The number of injured in magnitude 8.0 earthquake reached 220,109, it said.
In Sichuan alone, a total of 31,978 people were killed since Monday’s deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake, with 209,905 others injured.
Statistics from the emergency response office show that the death toll in Deyang and Mianyang cities of the province hit 10,341 and 11,874 respectively.
The office also gave a breakdown of the death toll in other areas as 4,156 in Chengdu, 2,586 in Guangyuan, 2,871 in Aba and 23 in Ya’an.
Outside Sichuan, the death toll was 364 in Gansu Province, 113 in Shaanxi Province, 16 in Chongqing Municipality, two in Henan Province, one in Yunnan Province, one in Hubei Province, and one in Hunan Province.
where to get last news?
english.sina.com/z/080512sichuanquake/index.shtml
english.gov.cn/
english.people.com.cn/
news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=china+earthqu…
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036059/
topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/earthquakes/si…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hzdkl/sets/72157605059158003/
Filed under: kding and
China has announced three days of national mourning as the death toll from last week’s devastating earthquake mounted and rescue workers continued to search for survivors among the rubble.