| Now This Is Home | ||||
| By Hu Qing-qing. Translated by Tang Yau-yang | ||||
This residence may not be the coziest, but it is a clean and safe shelter with a roof to keep out the wind and rain—a home that you really want to go back to because it is filled with love. Wearing a red hat and a light-blue surgical mask, Ms. Zhuo pulled the rusted metal gate shut, turned around, and got into a car with Tzu Chi volunteers. The car pulled away from the chicken farm where she had lived for some time. She was headed to her new home—and a brand-new future. Having suffered one stroke of bad luck after another over a period of time, Zhuo had learned to keep her hopes low. But a group of kind-hearted people were changing her dim perspective on life and brightening it with hope.
The chicken coop One afternoon in late April 2014, some Tzu Chi volunteers from Gushan, Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, set out to visit the home of a potential care recipient in Dashu, another district in Kaohsiung. The address they had led them to a chicken farm. Amidst the din and stench of thousands of chickens, they approached a nondescript metal shed. That was where Ms. Zhuo lived.
“Anybody home?” the volunteers called out. “Yes, please come in,” replied a weak voice. The volunteers walked into the shed. Zhuo, 54, had just returned home a few days before from her chemotherapy treatments, and she was resting to regain her strength. She labored to prop herself up, not believing that these people were actually standing before her to answer her prayers—prayers upon which she had pinned little hope. “I didn’t think that my phone call would get you to come,” Zhuo commented. Then she began to tell the volunteers her story. When she was younger, she was too busy working to help support her family to get married. She has remained single to this day. She put her life savings into real estate investments more than two years ago at the suggestion of a friend, but those soon went bad. She ended up losing all the money she had put in, and more besides. She even ended up in debt. That was in June 2012. To make matters worse, she had no place to live. In May 2013, a friend’s brother let her move into that metal shed on his chicken farm. As if her financial downfall and shabby living conditions were not bad enough, Zhuo found a lump in her breast three months later. Her disease would have been covered under Taiwan’s national health insurance if she had kept up her premium payments. But she had not, so her health insurance had been suspended, leaving her without any coverage. Consequently, she did not seek medical help immediately. When she finally went to see a doctor—over two months later—she was told that she had stage IV breast cancer, meaning it was an invasive cancer that had spread from the breast to other parts of her body. Treatment ensued, but she had to borrow money to pay for it. In March 2014, she lost her nerve to borrow from her friend again. She had to stop her treatment regimen, but the cancer did not stop damaging her. In April, she became so sick that she had to be rushed by ambulance to a hospital emergency room. She was hospitalized. Now on top of being so sick, she was worried about her hospital charges too. The caregiver for the patient in the next bed told Zhuo to try Tzu Chi. She slept on that suggestion for several days. Without any other option, she finally called the Kaohsiung branch of the foundation. In less than a week, volunteers showed up at her metal shed.
Sorting things out Lu Chen Feng-zhu (盧陳鳳珠) and other volunteers returned to see Zhuo again the next day, and they gave her some emergency cash. “This is not an illness whose treatment you can afford to put off,” they warned Zhuo. They began helping her pay off her delinquent health insurance premiums in installments. They also involved Zhang Sheng-feng (張勝峰), the village head, to help apply for social welfare. Zhuo’s shed sat right on top of a drainage ditch, so insects like mosquitoes were rampant, and with the chickens so close, there was no escaping from the extremely offensive smell of their droppings. During a later visit, Lu Chen observed that the place was unfit even for healthy people, much less for a patient in chemo. Volunteers asked Zhuo if they could look for a better place to rent for her, but she reluctantly declined. They pressed her for an explanation. She told them that she would not be able to afford it. “I know you worry that I might get infected here,” Zhuo said, “but I’ll be careful.” The volunteers would not take no for an answer though, not on this issue. They said to her, “You just take care of yourself, and let us see what we can do about the rental.” Zhuo received regular cancer treatments over the following month, and bounced back quite nicely. At the same time, the conditions at the chicken farm worsened as the summer reached its peak. The rising temperatures amplified the odor problem. Finding new lodging could not wait another day. Zhang, the village head, quickly found her a place. However, when volunteers were rounding up people to clean up and paint that place so Zhuo could move in, the somewhat superstitious landlady learned about her illness and decided not to rent it to her. Disappointed, the volunteers nonetheless understood the woman’s reaction. They would rather be upfront about everything than try to hide the truth. Fortunately, Zhang found another place for Zhuo just a few days later. Volunteers looked over the new place to decide what furniture and appliances Zhuo would need. Then they shopped at the thrift stores at various Tzu Chi recycling stations for the needed items. On the big day, Wang Ming-hui (王明輝) and nine other volunteers drove to the recycling stations to pick up the items before they headed out for the chicken farm.
Moving in When they entered Zhuo’s shed, she was sitting on the bed with two black plastic bags lying beside her. “Is that all? Is there anything else you need to move?” they asked her. “This is it. I just have a few clothes,” she replied. They all drove to the new place, where another team of volunteers was waiting for them. The group unloaded the furniture and things and moved them into the house. Zhuo’s excitement was obvious. Lu Chen put her arm around her shoulder and said, “Let’s go in and figure out where to put the furniture and the bed.”
“How about putting this here?” volunteers asked Zhuo before they put things in their places. Teary-eyed, she kept nodding her consent to their questions as she walked from the bedroom to the living room. Then the village head and a few volunteers hustled in a refrigerator; Zhuo bowed to them to express her thanks. Just as she was walking into the kitchen, a man delivered a gas tank for cooking. (Many Taiwanese kitchen stoves run off propane tanks, which are delivered to households.) “Let’s ask the gentleman to connect it to the range,” said A-ying, the landlady. She took Zhuo’s hands and said to her, “Don’t worry too much. Just settle down here and fight the illness.” The volunteers thanked A-ying for taking in Zhuo during the time of her illness. “It’s nothing. Everybody gets sick, so that’s no taboo to me,” said A-ying. “I’m glad to know you all. Considering how many people there are in this big world, we’ve all beaten incredible odds to be in this room together. Just think about that.” When everything was set up, it began to thunder and rain cats and dogs. Volunteer Wang Hui-fen (王慧芬) hollered for all to hear as she walked out of the kitchen carrying some sweet rice dumplings, “Let’s have some tangyuan to celebrate the move, along with the music of the rain and wind.” Everyone surrounded Zhuo and gave her their best wishes. She could not contain her emotions as she said through her tears, “You’ve been so kind to me. I must be strong and carry on.” Wang hung a red decoration, representing good fortune, on her shoulder bag. It had been about two months since Tzu Chi volunteers in Gushan had begun caring for Zhuo. After her move, volunteers in Dashu would take over and look after her. Someone pushed open a window and exclaimed, “The rain has stopped.” Zhuo went to the window and looked out. Rows of pineapple plants, still quite green, came into clear view. She took a deep breath and said, “I haven’t breathed so freely in a very long time!” |
|
