Dreadful disaster, great motherhood!

Source: Xinhua | 05-19-2008 16:00

BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhuanet) -- The Sichuan earthquake of 8.0 magnitude has killed more than 32,000 people and rescue work in the quake-hit areas is going on for the eighth day Monday. Stories of great motherhood, the brightest spot in human nature, are carried throughout the nation.

In the afternoon of May 12, shocked by the great trembling of the quake, Jiang Xiaojuan, a policewoman from Jiangyou county, said nothing. But she handed her 6-month-old baby to her parents with no hestation and directly hurried out to find the disaster victims and give them help.

As a mother, Xiaojuan knew best what to do. She went to the orphaned babies who were crying of hunger. She breastfed them and gave them her loving care. Xiaojuan realized at the moment that life must go on and she is the mother of them all.

On May 13, the second day of the quake, rescuers in Wenchuan county found a mother -- dead from crush for over 20 hours -- still had her 3-month-old son under her. The little thing was, alas, sleeping peacefully! 　

Evidently, the dead mother was protecting her baby by prostrating her own body. When rescuers unwrapped the blanket from around the baby, they read a text message on the phone screen: "My dear baby, if you live, you must remember that I love you."

Song Xinyi, a three-year-old girl in Beichuan county, was saved after more than forty hours fighting for life. Now she is in a hospital recovering from her wounds.

The little girl was discovered by an officer from a military rescue team at about 8 a.m., May 13. Her parents were squeezed by a displaced broken wall and dead. This is the scene described by the officer: the mother was in a posture with all her desperate strength, supporting herself while struggling to leave space for her daughter's escape. The mother's name not known, but her last minite is lasting.

Civil affairs officials in Sichuan Province estimate there will be a big number of kids who have lost their parents in the quake as rescue work goes on. However, they said they are considering registrations for people who are willing to adopt earthquake orphans and will start the adoption process after normality is resotred in the areas.

Editor:Zhang Ning