A memory about SARS


(Assignment: write about the sharpest memory from your childhood)

I was standing under that sparse willow tree in front of the hospital, waving and shuddering, as I saw that bus of Red Cross take my mother away. I can feel my father’s arm around me, and he hugged me tighter and tighter as the bus receded. Warm wind of the late spring was fiddling with my eyelash. And finally in the bustle of the see off crowds, I couldn’t help but burst into tears.

The year was 2003, when SARS swept across China and the whole world, the disease made Beijing deathly still, losing its luster and vitality in old days. People smelled death and panic in the air. But my mother, a dedicate and experienced nurse, volunteered to be in part of a medical team that fight against SARS in Beijing XiaoTangShang hospital(which is, during that time, the only hospital for diagnosed severe patients from the whole city). And I was only ten years old.

I can still remember the big red and white bus, driving off slowly, like a huge ugly monster with bloody teeth. And my mother was in it, with a big smile on her face, trying to tell me through the window that everything is going to be fine. But the distance between us was getting further and further. I felt like there is nothing in the world I can do to close that distance, to get near to my mother again.

 
That year, under that tree of lingering, I cried my heart out. For the first time in my life, I tasted the agony of separation. And the agony was so deep that it cut a wound on your heart.

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 9, 2014 at 6:36 PM

    So glad I will be the first one to give a comment. Lol. Though that's really a sad story. =(
    This is my favorite article among the class. I can even feel the sorrow and the desperation. Every time you describe the distance, the emotion of depression just get stronger. And I like the way you use the simile, which makes the picture more vivid and conveys the sad. Feel so touched.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 大思July 10, 2014 at 1:48 PM

    i have to say, my mother really was smiling, i didn't make that up. and her smile was really too much for me to bear as a nine years old. i tried to write about this several times but i couldn't. now many years have passed, i finally did it. i'm glad i have the chance to tell this story, or it will be buried in my heart forever. this blog is really a big relief for me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carrie AllenJuly 13, 2014 at 4:06 AM

    "this blog is a relief"....those are indeed sweet words for this teacher. As we talked about in class, writing can certainly be cathartic.
    And as your audience, we enjoy sharing in your expressive language and passion.

    ReplyDelete

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