Jessie - Hu P ing - #0505020060

Chinese experienced an infrequent storm during the Spring Festival of 2008. Unfortunately, during this winter, an extremely bad “storm” struck my family.

When I received the news that my younger sister—a seven year old girl who was suddenly seriously ill, I could hardly believe my ears and my heart sank.

After five days of being observed by the doctor, he said an operation was necessary. Though the operation had some danger, we had no other choice. Considering carefully, my father finally signed the written consent papers for the operation.

The operation lasted about thirty minutes. During these thirty minutes, each one of my family members waited outside the operating room. My father paced the floor restlessly while my mother just stared at an operating room stretcher, with tears in her eyes.

The following night was very dangerous for the patient. In order to take care of my sister, my mother and I decided to stay up.

From the time my sister came out she never stopped crying. My mother and I stood near her on either side, trying our best to comfort her. But nothing could calm her down. Not until she became totally weak did she stop crying and started to groan. Exhausted, she fell asleep. However, even as she slept, she moaned softly, with a wrinkled brow. Her twisted face showed her pain.

Seeing my sister’s suffering, my mother couldn’t stop her tears. Sadness and tension tired me, making me feel drowsy. Suddenly, a scream awakened me. To my surprise, it was my mother but not my sister who cried. An unpleasant premonition hit me. I rushed to my mother. Both of us were scared by what we saw: my sister’s urine was scarlet—totally bloody. I rushed out to call the doctor as soon as I realized what had happened.

“That’s strange. She should not be bleeding now.” After injecting some styptic for my sister, the doctor felt helpless.

My family was in a total mess. No one had the mood to eat or sleep. My mother’s eyes were red and swollen because of her weeping. My father, never believing Buddhism, even went to the temple and prayed for my sister. Except for looking after my sister, I didn’t know what to do either. On the night of Spring Festival, my father came back to the hospital. Nothing was more important than my family spending the holiday together, even if there was no delicious food, no laughter, only difficulty and trouble.

Thanks to God, my sister eventually came through the trouble. The storm trapped us in great pain, but luckily, the love of my family brought us a kind of warmth in the cold winter.