It was early spring in northern China; the wind was still chilly. I was walking silently on a path in the cemetery, slowing down my pace deliberately as if never willing to get there, but anyhow, I got to the end of the path eventually. My mother had been “sleeping” underground lonely for more than a decade, but the pain that was embedded so deeply in my heart was like “a lump in my throat”, which was not relieved a little bit after all these years. Who on earth took my mother’s life away from her? Was it really a stomach disease？ Or Grandma's benightedness, or the Disciple Society’s insane mind control? This question had been puzzling me all the time. As I grew up, I had got a clearer picture of the cause of my mother's tragic death.
My name is Xu Qing (alias), I live in Xiqing District, Tianjin. Ten years ago, when I was still in primary school, my mother was a farmer, my father worked in a dye factory in a nearby town, and we were living in a harmonious family. However, our happy life came to a sudden end on March 19, 2006, when my mother's smile was immortalized in a black and white photo, and gradually became blurred in my memory.
I was too young at that time, so whenever I asked about the cause of my mother's death, I almost always got the same answer of “dead from disease” from my father’s perfunctory words. As time passed, my father no longer had any contact with Grandma's family, even whenever it was mentioned, the atmosphere would immediately become so intense, as if they were sworn enemies. Several years later, only when I became a grownup did I learn the whole truth of the story.
One day in autumn of 2005, my mother suddenly felt discomfort in the stomach, accompanied with nausea and vomiting, so she rushed to the hospital to see a doctor. After examination, my mother was diagnosed as pyloric obstruction and chronic gastritis. In early 2006, after a week-long hospitalization, my mother's condition was improved significantly, and she began to eat some liquid food. It was the end of lunar December. To avoid spending the New Year in a hospital, my mother insisted on leaving hospital and returned home for rest. During the recuperation period at home, my mother strictly followed the doctor's advice and received daily infusion on time, so her condition remained stable.
However, no one would had expected that the Spring Festival of family reunion would turn into the beginning of a nightmare. Grandma, who had been obsessed with "Disciple Society" for more than three years, persuaded my mother to go back to Grandma's home for treatment by praying "evangelism", and she vowed that to cure a minor stomach disease was like a piece of cake. It was a shame that my poor mother was then taken to Grandma's house on the eighth day after the Lunar New Year, then she never returned home.
In order to make my mother recover soon, Grandma found several "deacons of Disciple Society" cult and invited them home to pray and treat my mother for many times. They threw away my mother's medicine, made her lie on a bed, and hanged a "Cross Flag" above her, forcing her to receive their absurd prayers.
Those "deacons" also told Grandma that, only by recruiting more believers and attracting more people to believe in their religion, could my mother's disease be cured soon. At their instigation, Grandma went to her neighbors’ homes many times to recruit followers, but most of the time, she was given the cold shoulder and her efforts ended up fruitless.
After more than a month’s praying, my mother's stomach did not improve a little bit. To make things worse, she could neither eat nor drink. Severe vomiting plus malnutrition caused electrolyte disorders and acid-alkali imbalance inside my mother’s body, which eventually led to multi-organ failures and her death. During this period, my father had gone to Grandma's home several times with relatives, intending to take my mother to the hospital for treatment, but every time they were stopped by Grandma, who, along with the ferocious "deacons", shouted at and quarreled with my father and relatives, or even beat them fiercely. The originally harmonious and warm relationship between the in-laws had been totally broken up. After my mother passed away, the two families had never contacted with each other anymore.
In this way, my mother died at the age of only 35 years old, and I became a child without a mother. Had it not been for the nonsense of curing diseases by praying, or had it not for Grandma’s ignorance and stubbornness, who would expect that a stomach could have taken the life of a young woman.
Many years later, after I learned about the whole story, I rushed to Grandma's home with great anger, intending to scold her and vent my resentment. But, when I pushed open the door of her courtyard and saw a lonely figure sitting on the steps, with her back bending down and eyes staring blankly, surrounded her were the yellow dead grass and piled debris, then, I suddenly realized that the pain of losing her daughter was the greatest punishment for Grandma’s ignorance and willful actions.
Later, I heard that after the tragedy, Grandma went crazily to find those "deacons" to get even with them all. But some of them had been arrested by the police, while others were on the run or missing. Although Grandma had ultimately woken up, the price she had paid was an unbearable pain in heart.
From then on, I joined the anti-cult volunteer team in our community and became an anti-cult advocator. I fully realize that only when the anti-cult work goes into thousands of households and into the hearts of ignorant people like my Grandma can the tragedy of my Mum not be repeated.
