Recent photo of Li Zhaodi

My mother is Liu Chunhua. She was born in March 1951, and lived in YangDao Village, XiaZhuang Township, Fuping County, Hebei Province. My mother grew up in a small village in the mountain area, She gave birth to four girls after she got married. Due to the poor living conditions, two of my younger sisters died young one after the other. Only my oldest sister and I grew into adult.

My feudal-minded mother had been longing for a son to carry on the family name of Li. But she failed to get pregnant after the birth of my youngest sister. My parents consulted many doctors, including some famous persons, and took a lot of herbal medicines. But all of these efforts did not make any effect. The fact that they didn’t have a son was the deepest regret of my parents, and it often touched off their quarrels. They got angry and had bitter quarrels for this reason.

Incited by our neighbor Zhang Yueqin, my mother began to practice Falun Gong in February 1997. My unhappy mother took Falun Gong as her new spiritual sustenance, gradually getting obsessed with it. It was a coincidence that my then-48-year-old mother got pregnant in the following year and gave birth to my younger brother smoothly. Having a son at old age made my father very happy. Our neighbors also came to congratulate my parents on the fulfillment of their long-cherished wish. But my mother attributed this to Falun Gong, believing that it was her infinitely resourceful master who helped them fulfill the wish. She told whomever she met that any difficulty may be solved as long as they follow the master to practice and that her son would definitely be successful as long as she kept on practice.

My mother had been physically weak due to her years of hard work and lack of nutrition after childbirth. She became much weaker after she gave birth to my brother at such an old age. During the first month after she gave birth to my brother, she neglected various taboos, often refusing to eat or drink anything. She stayed in her room, worshiping the portrait of her master for a long time to express her gratitude. In spite of her diseases, she refused to take our advice, or to see a doctor. She kept on muttering inexplicable "passages" from her books all day long. Falun Gong changed my mother into a different person.

In July 1999, Falun Gong was outlawed by government. Many practitioners in our village gave it up. Seeing my mother get mentally and physically weaker, we advised her against Falun Gong. Our neighbors also came to persuade her. But all of our efforts failed to wake her up to reality. She insisted that she would not have had a son without Falun Gong and blessings from her master. These words were often on the tip of her tongue. My father tolerated such behaviors of my mother since she gave birth to a son.

As time went by, my mother was increasingly stubborn. She spent much more time on practicing, while neglecting my brother and the housework. My poor brother sometimes was so hungry that he set forth a cry, and sometimes got himself in a mess on the ground soiled with his urine. But it seemed that my mother did not notice such situations.

Since March 2002, my mother had suffered stiff joints, pains all over her body and incontinence of faeces and urine, all of which were caused by her lack of outdoor activities or physical exercises, her refusal to see a doctor in illness, and the after-effect of postpartum complications. Our whole family were against her practice and stopped her for many times. Our neighbors and relatives also came to persuade her to give up Falun Gong. But all of our efforts were fruitless. On the contrary, she got angry with us, complaining that we bothered her practice. She even required us to practice with her. She warned us not to be impolite to her master, and advised us to repeat "truthfulness, compassion and forbearance are good" as well as "Falun Dafa is good" so as to get more blessings for our family.

My mother’s health worsened quickly since she refused to take our advice or to receive treatment while simply believing the illness can be cured without taking medicines or injections.

In 2005, my mother’s stiff joints began to fester. She could not raise arms, or strengthen her legs. What is worse, she could not walk or eat without our help. My elder sister and I forced her to hospital. She was diagnosed as cardiac muscle and heart valve complications caused by rheumatoid disease rather than simple joint disease. Since she had missed the best opportunity for treatment, she had to improve her health only by conservative methods and by doing physical exercises. My mother, however, did not take doctors’ advice. Instead, she insisted that doctors were talking nonsense. She said that she was not sick and did not need treatment. She believed that her conditions reflected that her master was helping eliminate her karma and were tests prior to her consummation.

Since my mother was not cooperative and often refused to eat or drink, we had to take her home. My mother refused to take the medicines that doctors prescribed for her when she left the hospital. She even threw the medicines into toilet. The only thing she wanted to do was to alleviate the increasing pains by practicing Falun Gong. She often stayed up late at night, keeping her eyes wide open and murmuring while lying on Kang (a brick bed) motionlessly.

On the morning of April 22, 2007, my mother suddenly said to us, "I am achieving consummation. My master is coming." Then she spoke no words. During the following three days, she did not eat or drink anything. We tried our best to help her, but failed to make any improvement. Finally, my father decided to take her to hospital for infusion. But my mother rebelled fiercely.

Doctors told us, "She is too weak, and is not cooperative. Her heart, lungs and other organs began to fail. It is too late…" All of us had to watch my mother, who had been defiled by Falun Gong and reduced to skin and bones, heading toward the end of her life. At 2am on April 26, the fourth day since she was sent to hospital, my mother died. But she did not wake up until her death. What a pity!

That was not the end of our tragedy. The death of my mother left us into bitter sadness. Our normal life had been interrupted completely. On June 8, my younger brother, who had been in a trance after the death of my mother, was hit by a car on his way to school. He died in hospital after all rescue measures failed. The death of my mother and younger brother gave such a heavy blow to my father that he felt into serious illness. At present, he resigned all hope and was in mental disorder.

Our happy family was thus completely ruined.