| Farewell to a Paragon | ||||||||
| By Xie Ming-fang and Huang Zhen-yi Translated by Tang Yau-yang | ||||||||
The memorial service was simple but dignified. The fragrance of the flowers was redolent of a life well-lived. On June 20, 2014, family and friends, many of whom were Tzu Chi volunteers, gathered at Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital in southern Taiwan to pay their last respects to Lu Jin-yong (呂進泳), a beloved volunteer. “Even before he went in for the surgery, Brother Lu told his wife, Sister Lin Li-xia [林麗霞], where he kept the key to the recycling station,” Lai Ning-sheng (賴寧生), superintendent of the hospital, told the gathering. He was referring to the last operation that preceded Lu’s death. After pointing out what a committed volunteer Lu had been, the superintendent went on to say that Lu had even donated his body for anatomical pathology. He was giving back to society, even after his death. Many people in the audience could not hold back their tears.
Volunteer Wu Mei-sui (吳美隨), who had attended the autopsy of Lu’s body on June 17, said that Lu appeared to her in a dream that very night, in which they talked and laughed about recycling. “When I woke up, I cried out loud—I suddenly realized that he really was no longer with us.” She hoped they could become fellow volunteers again in a future life. When Lu’s wife spoke, she poured out all her emotions as she talked about her husband’s dedication to Tzu Chi. She said that after the 921 Earthquake, he knew how sad Master Cheng Yen was over the devastation, and he pledged to do his best to help with the relief efforts and take some of the load off the Master. He called Lin that very morning and asked what she was doing. When she answered, he said, “This is not the time to make breakfast. Go to the disaster area, quick.” After Typhoon Morakot ravaged southern Taiwan, he helped direct a work relief program for the construction of the Shanlin Great Love Village, which Tzu Chi built for people left homeless by the typhoon. He was needed to assign work to people and to manage things. His oldest son had just had an operation around that time and was still in Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital. Because Lu was busy, Lin had to care for their son by herself. She was so exhausted that she was on the verge of collapse. Just when she was feeling unhappy that her husband was not around to help, he called her and said, “It hurts me that I can’t be with our son, but I trust that someone as wise as you will take very good care of him. He’s recovering, but many people here have lost their homes and families to the typhoon. They really need help. I’ll be of better use here.” That phone call removed any bad feelings she had. Their son was very understanding too—he knew why his dad could not be with him. Lin, also a foundation volunteer, was quite busy herself. On Lu’s birthday this year, she did not stay home to spend time with him. Instead, she attended the graduation ceremony at the Tzu Chi College of Technology in Hualien, eastern Taiwan. Lin told the audience at the memorial service that her husband had intended to spend some quality time with her that day. To make up for the lost time, she had come to this very room, where Lu’s body lay, for several days with a cup of coffee for him [as an offering to his spirit], and she had talked to him just like in the old days. Lin fondly remembered: “He had told me that if I died before him, he would do Tzu Chi work day and night to fill the time without me. If he were to go first, he wanted me to go to the Jing Si Abode [where Master Cheng Yen and an assembly of nuns live]. He knew I’d be very sad and that I’d be very well cared for there.”
Dedicated Born in 1950, Lu forged a career working for a Japanese company as an accountant. When he joined Tzu Chi in 1990, he became actively involved with recycling work and home visits to the needy. In 1995, he was certified as a Tzu Cheng Faith Corps member. He was among the first batch of people receiving such a certification in Kaohsiung, a large port city in southern Taiwan. In 1996, Lu’s employer decided to move the company to China. Lu was faced with a career choice: follow his employer to China or quit. He talked the matter over with his wife, who ran a breakfast shop. They decided they could make do with the income from her shop alone, so Lu decided to leave the company and become a full-time Tzu Chi volunteer. He was just 46 years old that year. To thank his wife for allowing him to volunteer full-time, Lu donated one million NT dollars (US$33,300) out of his savings to Tzu Chi in her name. She reciprocated by adding some money to the severance pay that he had received from his company and donated two million NT dollars to the foundation in his name. They were Tzu Chi supporters through and through. Though Lu was most generous when it came to donating to the foundation to support its philanthropic work, he was on the opposite end of the spectrum when it came to spending money on himself. He never traveled abroad for pleasure; the only time he went abroad was to help with an international disaster relief mission. He continued to wear his clothes and socks even after he had worn holes in them. “I wear those clothes and socks on the inside. Nobody can see the holes, so it’s okay,” he used to say. “It’s more important to save money so I can donate it.” His wife recalled that one time when their son was polishing his father’s shoes, he found one of the soles was worn completely through. Lu was really thrifty with himself. Volunteer Chen Ruo-yi (陳若儀), from Taipei, first met Lu when she volunteered during the second phase of building the Shanlin Great Love Village. She remembers that he always planned daily activities in advance to ensure that the project progressed as scheduled. “When it rained, he said it didn’t matter, it would stop soon. When he found out that I couldn’t handle heavy manual work, he suggested that I switch to administrative work. Whenever I felt that I couldn’t take it anymore, his smiles always reenergized me.” Lu got up at four o’clock during that time to prepare hot beverages and to move heavy objects for his wife and their daughter to help them get ready to open the breakfast shop. After that, he would drive volunteers to the Shanlin construction site. When the volunteers had gone home after a day’s work, he would stay behind to clean up, check the progress, and carefully plan out the next day’s work so that everyone in the work relief program had work to do and all tasks had people assigned to them
Chen went on: “I saw in Lu what it was like to have faith, perseverance and wisdom, and I learned from him how we should make the best of our time by giving for the greater good.” She observed that Lu never questioned other people’s abilities. There was no such thing as an inept worker in his eyes—there were only workers who were placed in the wrong places. Lu also expected himself to be congenial to everyone. He greeted everyone with a smile and thanked them for giving unselfishly. His positive attitude helped him develop good ties with other volunteers. In addition to helping with the construction of the Shanlin Great Love Village, he was involved from beginning to end in the construction of the Kaohsiung Jing Si Hall, a place where Tzu Chi volunteers could gather for spiritual cultivation and hold events for the local community. After the hall was completed, he helped keep it spotlessly clean. He also spared no effort helping with Tzu Chi’s recycling work. After much difficulty, Tzu Chi finally established a recycling location in Qijin District, where many of the residents work in fishing-related jobs. The law stipulated that a recycling location had to be completely cleaned up after being used for recycling during the day. To make sure that the Tzu Chi location was in compliance with this regulation, every day after Lu finished his work at the Jing Si Hall he would take other volunteers to Qijin to help local volunteers collect recyclables. He visited Qijin so often that he became more familiar with that district than many local residents. He must have made a deep impression on the shop owners who saved their recyclables for Tzu Chi. Volunteer Wei Su-xiang (魏素香), who lives in Qijin, said, “Store owners usually don’t notice when volunteers are absent, but these past few days I’ve heard many of them ask why they haven’t seen him in days.” This showed how much Lu’s regular presence and hard work for recycling had impressed them. Always a person who taught by personal example, Lu inspired many volunteers to take on more responsibilities. When he felt that a new recycling location was running well enough, he handed it over to local volunteers and moved on to start a new location. He was always working, always doing this or that for Tzu Chi. As a result, his shirt was always wet from his exertions. If his shirt happened to be dry, those around him wondered if he was unwell. “No matter what people asked him to do, he would always smile and say, ‘OK, I’ll do it,’” said his wife. In his dictionary, there were no such words as “difficult” or “impossible.” When Lin asked him if he was tired, he would reply, “The Master never says that she’s tired. I don’t feel right resting.” Leaving in peace Lu had always been healthy, except for some weaknesses in the heart, for which he had regular follow-ups at Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital. On June 9, 2014, Lu felt severe abdominal pains. Examinations at the urology and GI clinics at a hospital near his home revealed nothing unusual. When the pain went away without treatment, he resumed his recycling work and he helped harvest mangos on the grounds of the Jing Si Hall to share with people. On June 13, the intense pain returned and he went to see a cardiologist. The doctor spotted abnormalities on his electrocardiogram and suggested that he seek help at a large hospital. The next day, Lu and his wife traveled to Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital. “Our oldest son wanted us to take the high-speed rail, but my husband suggested taking the regular train,” Lin recalled. “He didn’t want to spend that extra money, and we could have a nice talk on the trip.” Detailed examinations at the hospital indicated that the inner wall of his aorta was torn from top to bottom. The doctors said that the situation required immediate surgery, or it might be too late. At the time, the only extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine at the hospital was being used in another operation, so the doctors hurried to refer him to another hospital. Before going to that hospital, Lu told his wife things that he wanted her to take care of at the recycling station while he was away. He also asked Zhang Hong-fen (張紅芬), a volunteer at Dalin Hospital, to call him when the surgery that was using the ECMO machine was over. He told Zhang that he could come back at any time. At the other hospital, waiting to enter the operating room, Lu told his family and fellow volunteers not to worry, he would not let the Master down by not making it. If he failed to make it out of the operating room, they should just donate his body to Tzu Chi. The surgery started at four o’clock in the afternoon of June 14 and lasted until seven the next morning. After the operation, he remained unconscious in the intensive care unit. He passed away that night in peace. He was 64. His body was sent back to Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital to honor his wish that his remains be used for medical research. On June 17, Dr. Xu Zhi-en (蘇志恩), chief of anatomical pathology at the hospital, led junior resident and attending physicians in conducting the autopsy. Volunteers from Kaohsiung packed the room in which the procedure was going on and the area outside the room, chanting the Buddha’s name for Lu. When the buzz of an electric saw could be heard behind a curtain, many of the volunteers had tears rolling down their faces. After the pathological procedure, Lu’s children knelt by his side and encouraged him to go in peace. He seemed to be smiling, and his body exuded a hint of sandalwood scent. Lin composed herself and said words of gratitude and blessings into his ear.
His legacy Lu introduced many people to Tzu Chi when he was alive, and he helped deepen many volunteers’ commitment to the foundation. Even his passing prompted quite a few people to begin doing recycling work. Yet he probably would be happiest if he learned that his own second son, Lu Yu-xian (呂育賢), had finally decided to follow him into Tzu Chi. Lu once drove six hours with his son for a visit to the Jing Si Abode in an effort to get him to join Tzu Chi. Sadly, Yu-xian took Lu’s money and car keys and drove off, leaving Lu there alone. Lu did not seem upset, so his wife asked how he could be so tolerant. Lu said, “Our second son is a challenge the bodhisattvas have given me to further me on the path of spiritual cultivation. Having done my best as a father, I won’t dwell on what can’t be helped. His life is up to him, whatever he makes of it.” At Lu’s memorial service, Yu-xian said to the attendees, “The song that you just sang makes me think that Dad would probably have liked to say to me, ‘Son, where are you now? I hope your days are filled with happiness.’” He repented to his father and thanked him for never giving up on him. He had left home when he was still a teenager, and he had led an aimless life, doing all sorts of bad things. In the more than ten years he was away, he often thought about coming home to his parents, but he just could not gather enough courage. On June 15, the day when Lu was most critically ill, Yu-xian spent the most time with him, more than on any other occasion. “As I stroked his head, I felt so close to him.” Yu-xian was especially grateful to Sister Huang Ming-yue (黃明月). She held his hand and promised old Lu that she would bring his son into Tzu Chi. “I never imagined that it would take Dad’s life to save mine,” Yu-xian said to the volunteers, “but I really hope to live a new life and be a good person from now on. In the future when you see me showing up to volunteer, please say hello to me and give me work to do. It’d be really nice to hear you say, ‘Brother Lu, there you are. Please come give me a hand.’” To Lu’s children, he was the greatest father one could ever wish to have. “We grew up receiving the best care from him,” they said. “He gave us so much, and yet he never asked for anything in return.” To his wife of 40 years, he was a dear, loving husband. She observed that he always gave credit to other people and took the blame on himself. He did his best to volunteer for Tzu Chi, but he always told people that he was able to do that only because of her support, even though she really didn’t do much for him. He often prayed to the bodhisattvas to make her healthier, promising that he was willing to live a shorter life in trade for better health for her. “How could my heart not ache for the passing of such a real-life bodhisattva?”
To many fellow Tzu Chi members, Lu’s dedication to Tzu Chi was more than admirable. Huang Zhen-sheng (黃鎮生), head of the construction department at the Kaohsiung Jing Si Hall, had worked closely with Lu over the years. “Every time he came to our office, he would always ask if there was anything that he could do to help. He was always finding work to do.” Lu may not have lived a long life, but he certainly lived it to the full, and he thoroughly lived out his maxim: “Give people peace of mind, joy, convenience, and a shoulder to lean on.” The footprints of his love can be found in his family, in Tzu Chi, and everywhere he went. |
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