Feature: When tremor hits, femininity shines

THE BELATED MESSAGE OF ROMANCE

Li Diyan never expected her husband to carry her photo every day, because after two decades of marriage, she knew he was just not the romantic type. "I thought he knew nothing about romance. He never told me 'I love you' in all those years," Li says.

When she found out how wrong she was, it was too late. One month before his scheduled retirement, Colonel Qiu Guanghua was killed in action -- his helicopter crashed while carrying a dozen trapped and injured villagers from the remote mountains. Collecting his belongings, rescuers found a yellowing photo of his wife in his breast pocket.

Before the earthquake, the couple were planning how to spend their retirement. "Touring around Shanghai, Hangzhou.... We had done a schedule," Li says.

The helicopter disappeared in bad weather in the cloudy mountains. It was found after a 10-day search.

When he was missing, she had firmly believed he was alive. On the previous flight, Qiu survived a mishap when he was carrying about 20 injured people from Maoxian County, his home area. The engine overheated, but he managed a forced landing. He had 5,800 hours of flying time.

She believed the same thing had happened this time. It was his 64th flight in the 17 days after the quake. Struggling between hope and despair, she often woke in the middle of the night when she heard a noise and asked, "Is that you? Guanghua?"

They lived near the airport. She had to get up early and ride her bicycle for two hours to work. He asked to move, but she refused. "It is near your workplace and convenient for you," she told her husband.

She is still proud of him, the boy from a backwater village who became a pilot.

He volunteered for the rescue team although he could have been excused so close to his retirement.

"They are suffering. I can't sit watching. I want to do my part," he told his wife.

She assured him she would take care of the family and look for his missing father and mother. She finally contacted them and brought them medicine, foods and a power-generator.

Each time her husband left, she worried. "It was his familiar 'Hi' on phone after every flight that made me feel safe at heart," Li says.

But this time, the call never came.

She has set up a memorial hall at their home. She pours two cups of liquor before his picture every night, toying with her jade necklace pendant. It was a token of betrothal from him. Another hung round his neck. A DAUGHTER'S MEMORY AND WISH

"Mum, you gave me life, but I am sorry I can't sustain yours. How I wish I could be your mother if there were afterlife, then I could take better care of you," wrote Li Jia, 26, on the blog dedicated to her mother, who died in the earthquake.

Li Jia, an art editor of an advertising company in Chengdu, was having on-line chat with her mother, who worked in Beichuan County, when the tremor struck. Her mother went suddenly off-line and couldn't be reached on her mobile.

Finally, word came that her mother's workplace was flattened during the quake and her body couldn't be found. Li Jia couldn't believe that her meeting with Mum on May 1 when they danced together to celebrate the Labor Day was their last.

Memories haunted Li Jia and she decided to open a blog on May 26 for her mother. She wrote that she met her Mum every day in her dreams and hoped to see her often in this way. She confessed her regret at not saying "I love you" due to her shyness. She promised to her mother that she would be strong and happy.

"Through the blog, I felt relieved. It is also a way to talk to myself to gain strength to move on," said Li Jia, adding that her mother's biggest wish was to see her daughter healthy and happy.

When Li Jia arrived in Beichuan County on June 21 to see her once cozy home in ruins, she couldn't help weeping silently.

But she soon regained self-control. "Mum, I know you are watching me, so I will cry no more. Your love will be lifelong and you will always be there." (Zhang Yanping, Zhu Yu and Bai Ruixue contributed to the story.)

Editor:Xiong Qu