Story of inspiration here, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
The doctors had given the “verdict” of both boys not living past age twenty “cherishing every single day and night…worked hard to create with our lives, hoping to become an inspiration to others.”
If you can only live until twenty, how, do you face your life that’s about to end? The brothers, Tsengs diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy used the only parts of their bodies still able to move, their fingers to make art, to write poetry, “Working hard, to create with our lives, hoping to inspire others.”
The work that the two brothers made was called, “Flying Toward the Sun”, and, it’s getting published in October, the CYF Foundation was moved by the love of life that these two brothers had, they’d already preordered a thousand copies of their book. Their mother said, that the earnings from their books will be donated to the rare illness organizations, to help care for more children like her two sons.
Yi-Kai and Yi-Chi Tseng, very shortly after birth, were diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the doctor told their mother, that they will not live past twenty y4ars of age.
Yi-Kai is already twenty-three this year, because his spine was deformed, his body curled backwards, “Like how a child was in the fetal position inside of the mother”, the family could no longer care for him on their own, he’s in the intensive care unit of the Zhongxing Hospital in Banciao now; the nineteen-year-old Yi-Chi was still cared for at home, he’s living off of a respirator. The hardships of their lives, “But, they’d cherished each and every day and night, not waiting a minute of time away.”
The brothers had great childhood memories, the family weekend outings, when Yi-Kai was in kindergarten, one day, he’d found that it’d become hard for him, to control his own motor movements, and, the doctor gave him the diagnosis of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and it is, without treatment and the family can only watch him, as he worsens in the ICU, while his younger brother started showing signs when he was only nine years old.
When Yi-Chi was diagnosed, his father left, and, the family didn’t have any economic support, and so, their mother carried everything on her shoulders, and, the bills ran up to $12,000N.T. a month, the emotional and economic stresses had caused their mother to want to commit suicide with them, it was Yi-Kai who’d encouraged her, “I want to keep on living so I can draw, write poetry, publish my work, to help inspire others.”
The boys had artistic talents since they were younger, the subjects of their drawings are mostly about “Mom” and “Dreaming Free”, in recent years, the brother’s conditions deteriorated, and could no longer sit up in their wheelchairs, became paralyzed in bed, and could no longer hold up their colors to draw anymore, so, instead, they’d used computer drawing programs.
The two of them used the only part they can move, their fingers, to use the mouse, stroke, by stroke, a card takes them three months to complete. Yi-Chi and his mom would have webcam conversations daily with Yi-Kai who’s in the hospital, the three of them would have their get-togethers in front of the computer screen.
Yi-Kai’s twisted body had become totally useless, he can’t paint anymore, he can only type out the characters of his poetry, and, each character would take him a couple of minutes, and, finishing up a less-than-a-hundred character poem would take him up to a week, but he’d still not given up on writing.
A few weeks ago, a fellow patient friend died, Yi-Kai wrote the topic of “The Chains of Our Lives”, “Fate became a chain that’s wrapped around us too tight, maybe, that, was a fate we can’t escape from, but, we can, change this hardship we felt endowed, lift that heavy burden off ourselves, and, get away from the shadows of our own sorrows, just leave that darkened corner, and, we will all be able to, live, underneath the bright sunlight.”
And, despite this young man’s physical conditions, he still kept a positive outlook on his own life, and that is the right kind of attitude that we can all take from.