Despite their poverty-stricken backgrounds, these children showed resilience, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
The newspaper story of “The Story of a Bowl of Noodle”, it’d made the public’s heart wrenched, the woman who’d died of cancer, Wu, left behind her five young children; and now, ten years later, the eldest, Guan-Yu Wei said, that although nobody can choose her/his family background, but one surely can choose how to act right, he and his younger sister both chosen the military career paths, and, their biggest hope is to buy a home for themselves, have a car, so they can all, travel together as a group, to fulfill that regret of never being able to travel with the entire family.
A woman, Huei-Ping Wu from the village of Zhushan, Nantou, was diagnosed with cervical cancer a decade ago, during the time of her hospitalization, the nurse took the children of the household to get some noodle, back then, the petite eldest daughter, Shue-Ting Wei said, “The three of us shall share a bowl of simple noodle soup.”
The social worker who took them out ordered them a bowl of wonton noodle soup instead, but the children only ate up the noodle, and drank up the soup, and saved the wontons. The social worker asked them about it, and that, was when the children said, “Mom and dad hadn’t eaten yet, we want to bring the food back to share with them!”, after this saddening tale got out, there were, over three million dollars N.T. collected from donations, and it was, set aside in a trust, as the five children’s funding for education.
No longer stressed out about the cost of education, this had, taken away half of the economic hardships, and, the living from day to day became reliant on the eldest uncle, Bo-Yen Wei, chopping down bamboo, doing odds and ends job, the eldest son, Guan-Yu Wei, the eldest daughter, Shue-Ting Wei and the third child, Tzi-Jing Wei, they are all, very orderly, started in their middle school years, they began working at the food factories to make the money, the family learned to become self-reliant, so their mom in heaven will know, “not to worry, we’re all faring quite fine.”
In order to make their wishes of buying a house, and buying a car, Guan-Yu Wei and his younger sister, Shue-Ting Wei took the examinations, and became army officers after high school graduations, and, carried the family’s economics on their shoulders; Guan-Yu Wei works at the recruit center in Chiayi, the younger sister was sent to Nangang, Mazu, she was paid $32,000N.T. per month, and $10,000N.T. was sent home to her father, and she’d, forced herself to save up the $25,000N.T. from the remcaining amount.
“I need to work hard to save the money for a house, so my family can start living more comfortably,” as the reporters visited the Wei’s household several times, they saw there were only two dishes served for supper, they were living in their uncle’s house, with the paint, fallen off, and, there were only, simple furniture there.
Guan-Yu Wei said, “being able to live together as a family is a blessing”, he’d saved up all his money alongside his younger siblings too, and he will work even harder now, so his father and younger sibling can, have a better home environment to live in, to live together as a family, and, driving out in their own car on trips.
the photo of the children and their elders…
courtesy of the UDN papers…
As the Weis gone out shopping, there would be store owners who’d given them the groceries for free to this day, Guan-Yu Wei said, he and his younger siblings would always turn this sort of kindness away, hoping, that the resources can be given to those who are faring worse than they are. The second youngest, Shue-Sheng Wei said, that to now, they can get the label of “a family sharing a bowl of noodle” off their backs, and that, it’s still, troubling him a bit, he hoped, that the outside world can believe, that they are capable of making it on their own, and just give them blessings.
The father, Bo-Yen Wei said, that the hardest days were already over, and his biggest comfort was how well his kids turned out. The neighbors said, that the five children had gone through the loss of their mother, and being poverty stricken and, there’s that scent of courage and confidence that radiated from them.
So, despite all of their shared hardships in life, living in poverty, these children still strived for excellence in everything that they do, and, it’s with this courageousness toward life, this attitude of never being beaten down, that, is why they’re able to, overcome the difficulties in their lives as a family.
Life, the Obstacle Course 