Grassland Erji (Touching Chinese Story (32))

The 79-year-old Duguima has a WeChat group. More than 20 people in the group affectionately called her Eji (Mongolian "mother"). None of these people, though, were related to her.

The story begins more than 60 years ago. Between 1959 and 1961, many parts of our country suffered serious natural disasters and food shortages. In the densely populated Jiangnan region, the pressure to eat is particularly high. The government first thought of children in orphanages in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and other places. Under the instructions of Premier Zhou, the Party Committee and Government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region decided to take orphans to Inner Mongolia and raise them by herders.

Between 1960 and 1963, as trains traveled north, nearly 3,000 orphans from Shanghai and nearby areas came to the vast grasslands.

Among them, 28 Shanghai orphans came to Wulanchabu Four Sons Wang Banner. The youngest is less than one year old, the oldest is 5 years old, and they are all weak and cannot be sent to herders for adoption after being conditioned in a nursery. Du Guima, a 19-year-old girl at the Flag Nursery, became the nursery for the 28 children.

"When the children come, I will make sure to pick up one, live one, and strengthen one." Duguima lost her parents at the age of 7 and has a special affection for these orphans.

However, it is not easy to take care of 28 orphans at once! Changing diapers, feeding milk powder, coaxing to sleep, teaching language, taking care of food and living... Duguima was too busy to touch the ground during the day, and he couldn't sleep at night. Once a child is sick, she still has to brave the cold wind to ride a horse for dozens of miles to send the child to the doctor. Du Guima didn't know Chinese and couldn't remember the names of the children, so she sewed them with different colors and styles of robes for identification.

From winter to spring, under the careful care of Duguima, none of the 28 children were disabled due to illness, and none of them died prematurely.

Suffering and tiredness are not the most painful things, what makes Duguima the most uncomfortable is that every time a child is raised, he is picked up by the adoptive family. How many children there are, how many times she will have to go through parting! After the child was taken away, she ran to the hillside behind the nursery and secretly wiped her tears...

Fast forward 60 years, and the orphans of that year are now all over the years, and their children and grandchildren are full of children. However, in front of Eji, they are still like children, often making a "no-fuss" over "robbing" the elderly. They said that as long as they stayed with the old man for a while, they would feel very satisfied. (Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition)