Friday, July 4, 2008

An Incredible love story

HOPE is a Waking Dream ... with LOVE everything is POSSIBLE!

(May I share with you this beautiful and inspiring love story? I know that there are many hopelessly romantic ones in the batch. Count me in!)

An incredible love story has come out of China recently and managed to touch the world..
It is a story of a man and an older woman who ran off to live and love each other in peace
for over half a century.


The 70-year-old Chinese man who hand-carved over 6,000 stairs up a mountain for his
80-year-old wife has passed away in the cave which has been the couple's home for the last
50 years. Over 50 years ago, Liu Guojiang a 19 year-old boy, fell in love with a 29 year-old
widowed mother named Xu Chaoqin...


In a twist worthy of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet,
friends and relatives criticized
the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that Xu already had children.

At that time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love
an older woman.. To avoid the market gossip and the scorn of their communities,
the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in Jiangjin County
in Southern ChongQing Municipality .


In the beginning, life was harsh as they had nothing, no electricity or even food.
They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain, and Liu made a
kerosene lamp that they used to light up their lives.

Xu felt that she had tied Liu down and repeatedly asked him, 'Are you regretful?
Liu
always replied, 'As long as we are industrious, life will improve..'

In the second year of living in the mountain, Liu began and continued for over 50 years,
to hand-carve the steps so that his wife could get down the mountain easily.

Half a century later in 2001, a group of adventurers were exploring the forest and
were surprised to find the elderly couple and the over 6,000 hand-carved steps.
Liu MingSheng, one of their seven children said, 'My parents loved each other so much,
they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single day.
He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother's convenience,
although she doesn't go down the mountain that much


The couple had lived in peace for over 50 years until last week. Liu, now 72 years,
returned from his daily farm work and collapsed. Xu sat and prayed with her husband as
he passed away in her arms. So in love with Xu, was Liu, that no one was able to release the grip he had
on his wife's hand even after he had passed away.


'You promised me you'll take care of me, you'll always be with me until the day I died,
now you left before me, how am I going to live without you?'

Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband's black coffin
with tears rolling down her cheeks.

In
2006, their story became one of the top 10 love stories from China , collected by the
Chinese Women Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the love ladder

and the place they lived as a museum, so this love story can live forever.

5 comments:

neliaamparo said...

Thanks for sharing this love story with us,Jo. It is indeed very beautiful.You are right,nothing is impossible with love.Lucky are the ones who were given this beautiful experience in their lifetime,even though it means breaking all the rules,for nobody can explain love's mystery.

C C ramirez said...

A bitter-sweet love story fraught with much physical hardships and the unthinkable lack of creature comforts we take for granted. It would be an extremely rare breed of woman or man who would take that road to romance.

I wonder what the frigid- hearted psychoanalysts would make of it.

And one other question: How did the children (hers and theirs) fare?

But there is another equally if not more heartwarming love story close to home, waiting to be told: Of a woman who selflessly tends her old ailing husband as he waits for the inevitable, with her unwavering faithfulness and devotion,out of pure love and respect and unquantifiable affection. How about it JoGJMac?

JoGJMac(http://titajo.blogspot.com) said...

Thanks, Nel, for the inspiration you're giving to us, bloggers. It really feels good to know that there are batchmates like you who take interest on our posts.

From the looks of it, I'm not the only 'hopelessly romantic' soul in the batch. I'm counting you in. Where are the others? Dalawa lang ba kami ni Nel?

JoGJMac(http://titajo.blogspot.com) said...

Thanks so much, too, CCR, for the very kind words about my mother.

Would you believe that I've been working on a post about her, for quite some time now? But unlike my previous writing attempts, which I was able to do in one sitting, I'm taking my time, for I want to be able to do justice to her being an exemplary wife, exemplary mother.

Pardon the adulation again.

neliaamparo said...

You're welcome Jo. I'm glad that somehow, I serve as an inspiration to our bloggers.You know ,our blog serves as an inspiration to me also,especially on days that I'm so stressed out from work.I've read that our profession is the 2nd most stressful job next to air traffic controllers.That's why having this blog is God sent for me.I can't remember a day that I didn't open our blog.
By the way, about being romantic,I'd like to remind you that I was born under the sign of Venus,which is the goddess of love,so don't be surprised.