She gave me joy--but, I cannot remember her name

The Wu-Feng Presbyterian Church 霧峯長老教会 is asking me to give a Faith Witness. I am planning to give several stories instead. If my congregation members believe those are good witness, then they are. Otherwise, they will be just part of my stories.

The first story I want to share is about a girl, my childhood friend. She had given me joy. But, I cannot remember her name. I will call her Miss Wu.

She and I grew up together in the same neighborhood of Chang-Hua, the most impoverished neighborhood of the city. The neighborhood did not have sewer systems; nor garbage pick-up. No asphalt road, only the dirt roads. There were 30-40 families clustering together; ignored, neglected or forgotten by the rest of the Chang-Hua city. Every family was struggling from one meal to the next meal. Yes, I had experienced those hard days in my early childhood life. So did she.

Summer days were hot and long. Because none of the family could afford the electric fans, we usually left our door open to catch some breeze. Once the doors were open, we all knew each other very well; especially our religion. In the folk religion, each family would put ancestors and other gods' images on the altar in the first room of the house. For a very long time, Miss. Wu's family was just like any other families, they also had ancestor and Buddha's images.

Then one day, those images and the altar were all gone from Miss Wu's family. Ms. Wu's family became a Christian family. That did not catch much of my attention until I noticed that she was helping her parent distributing flour, bread and butter to our neighborhood. What's a God-sent gift to all of us in the neighborhood for the bread and butter. They are the calories everybody needed. Apparently, her church had worked with American churches to distribute food reliefs to the needed Taiwanese families. That was the first experience we had with the charity and generosity of American churches and American people. Everyone in the neighborhood was deeply appreciated. During that time, she had also asked me to help her and her parent. I did , and I was very happy to do that. From time to time, she also invited me to attend children sessions of her church service. I did; I was specially motivated because the minister of the church would give us beautiful cards to keep if we could recite bible phrases in the sessions. I have gotten many cards and I had kept those cards for a long time. Those are the joyful times I had with my childhood.

Then suddenly there was an epidemic swept through Taiwan like a hurricane. It was the Diphtheria 白帿 epidemic which stroke very hard on the children under 15 years old especially in the neighborhood that had no money to afford the basic medical care. Schools and churches were closed for a while and I did not see her since then.

One night, I had seen a group of people gathering together at her house singing hymes. Other than that, I did not notice anything unusual.

The epidemic was over after three-week school and church recess. After that epidemic, she was not seen in the school; nor in the church. She was gone. The Diphtheria has taken her life away. That happened approximately 50 years ago.

She had given me joy in my childhood; but I cannot remember her name. I will call her, Miss Wu.