The face of an angel

By Tom Quiner

“The whole thing started when I found the first baby, a little girl back in 1972 when I was out collecting rubbish. She was just lying amongst the junk on the street, abandoned. She would have died had we not rescued her and taken her in.”

These are the words of 88-year-old Lou Xiaoying.

For over 4o years, she has combed the streets of Jinhua, China to rescue more than 30 abandoned babies.

Pause for a moment with me.

Soak in the face in this photo. What beauty.

Ms. Xiaoying’s face conveys love, compassion, perseverance.

These are attractive features.

You can tell life hasn’t been easy for this woman. And yet you can see the quiet joy she feels from the little, abandoned girl she chose to love:

“Watching her grow and become stronger gave us such happiness and I realized I had a real love of caring for children. I realized if we had strength enough to collect garbage how could we not recycle something as important as human lives.”

China has a problem. They prefer boy babies to girl babies.

Their birth rate is skewed with more far more boys than girls being born. Thanks to technology, Chinese parents frequently abort their babies when they discover the mom is carrying a girl.

On the other hand, some women simply abandon their babies on the streets of China when they have a girl.

An angel by the name of Lou has spent much of her life simply saving other lives through remarkable acts of charity. She has adopted six of these children, the most recent when she was 82. She found homes for others.

At 88, Lou is dying. She can barely move or speak. She has lived her life in material poverty, surrounded by the richness of love.

Much divides us in this age.

Let us use the example of Lou Xiaoying’s life to unite us. Love, compassion, and perseverance are always beautiful. For proof, simply look at the photo above.

[I wrote this blogpost in 2012. I tried to find out what happened to Lou Xiaoying in the five years since, but I drew a blank. I post it again for you enjoy this role model for charitable living in this culture of death.]