HOPE is a Waking Dream ... with LOVE everything is POSSIBLE
An incredible love story has
come out of China recently and managed to touch the world..
It is a story of a man and an older woman who ran off to li
ve and love each other in
peace
for over half a century
The 70-year-old Chinese man
who hand-carved over 6,000 stairs up a mountain for his
80-year-old wife has passed away in the cave which has been the couple's
home for the last
50 years. Over 50 years ago, Liu Guojiang a 19 year-old boy, fell in love
with a 29 year-old
widowed mother named Xu Chaoqin
In a twist worthy of
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, friends and relatives criticized
the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that Xu already
had children.
At that time, it was
unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love
an older woman.. To avoid the market gossip and the scorn of their
communities,
the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in Jiangjin County
in Southern ChongQing Municipality
In the beginning, life was
harsh as hey had nothing, no electricity or even food.
They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain, and Liu made a
kerosene lamp that they used to light up their lives.
Xu felt that she had tied Liu down and repeatedly asked him, 'Are you
regretful?
Liu always replied, 'As long as we are industrious, life will improve..'
In the second year of living in the mountain, Liu began and continued for
over 50 years,
to hand-carve the steps so that his wife could get down the mountain easily.
Half a century later in 2001,
a group of adventurers were exploring the forest and
were surprised to find the elderly couple and the over 6,000 hand-carved
steps.
Liu MingSheng, one of their seven children said, 'My parents loved each
other so much,
they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single
day.
He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother's
convenience,
although she doesn't go down the mountain that much.'
The couple had lived in peace
for over 50 years until last week. Liu, now 72 years,
returned from his daily farm work and collapsed. Xu sat and prayed with her
husband as
he passed away in her arms. So in love with Xu, was Liu, that no one was
able to release the grip he had
on his wife's hand even after he had passed away.
'You promised me you'll take
care of me, you'll always be with me until the day I died,
now you left before me, how am I going to live without you?'
Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband's
black coffin
with tears rolling down her cheeks.
In 2006, their story
became one of the top 10 love stories from
China , collected by the
Chinese Women Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the
love ladder
