I love my grandma. She always saved the best things for others and gave back ten times more than what she had received. Even while she was on her sickbed, she was reluctant to ask us for anything, afraid to be a burden. I was lucky enough to have been assigned an essay to be written about someone who had lived through the great depression. I chose her, because since she lived at my house and it was convenient to interview her. No one knew that she would a week later, be bedridden. The following is my essay.

It's odd how you can be living in the same room with a person for a long time thinking that you know all about them, but when you finally take the time to listen to their life story, you are amazed at how different they turn out to be! That's what happened to me when I interviewed my grandmother. All this time I just took it for granted that she was an elderly woman, a little hard of hearing, and carried around a pharmacy (for she took her medicine everywhere). I got a chance to know a lot about her, and what she had to go through.

Wan Lian Qing was born on July 24, 1917. Her dad worked at the Board of Education for Beijing, and was manager of office supplies. Her mom stayed at home as a housewife. She had one older sister, a younger sister, and a younger brother. Her sister was 9 years older than her. She was two years older than her youngest sister, and 13 years older than her baby brother.

Her childhood was not happy and carefree as most of ours was/is. Her father would often leave for work at the crack of dawn to walk to work, and would arrive home near midnight each day. As soon as she arrived home, she would rapidly complete her homework so that she would have enough time for household chores. At an early age, she was burdened with many worries usually placed on adults. Her mother developed a heart disease when she was a teenager. Without much money to buy proper medicine, her condition worsened, and she started coughing up blood and was bedridden. One of my grandmother's jobs at home was to take care of her mother. The only medicine they could afford was the traditional Chinese herbs that had to be boiled whenever the time came. She'd help her mother change clothes and helped her bathe. She also had to wash the clothes, fold the clothes, sweep and scrub the floor, wash the dishes, etc. Only on holidays, like the Chinese New Year would life become more bearable, for on that day, the market would sell delicious pastries like sugar shish kabobs, bean curd-filled dough, and many other types of fried delicacies that sound bad when translated into English, but are in fact very savory. She would go to the market, and watch the people buy and eat the tarts, rolls, and buns, her mouth watering. Their family had no surplus money to spend on food, not while her mother was still ill.

Her elementary school, Beijing 10th Elementary, was a public school, and at the time, the government didn't have any money to spend on the teachers' wages, so many teachers quit to find jobs somewhere else. That posed a problem for the students, so she went to a night school, taught by college students. A year later, the teachers at the original school returned, so she reverted back to the old school. This was her introduction to fun. All through her life, she regarded going to school and learning new things as "fun" because it was just such a precious opportunity back then. By the time she graduated from elementary school, she was fifteen, not unusual because most kids started school at age ten. When the time came for her to go to middle school, her parents wouldn't let her. It was very rare that girls went past elementary school, and her parents decided that they couldn't spare her. Finally, her teachers came to her house to plead with her parents. She was number one in her whole school, so they had found many middle schools that would let her in without having to pay. She had a lot of talent and had a will to learn, so if she wasn't allowed, it would all go to waste. After a lot of cajoling, they were convinced she should go. She was accepted to the top three all-girl middle schools in Beijing, because boys at that time, boys and girls did not go to the same middle school together. One would allow the girl to work right when she got out, one required the girl to go to college, and one let the girl teach only elementary school. She eventually resolved to go to Shi Fan, the one allowing her to immediately find a job.

Each day, she would trudge many miles to get to Shi Fan, because her parents refused to let her live in the dormitory, for both girls and boys shared the whole dormitory building, though they went to different schools. To get a boyfriend at that young age would ruin your reputation, and would hamper your career. Also, her school wouldn't inhibit her helping around the house because she could walk back everyday. All three of her sisters never went to middle school because either they didn't want to, or they weren't allowed to. Later when she found a job, she never failed to give them part of her salary because she felt that if it weren't for them, she could never go to school because she'd have to stay home to take care of her mother.

No one knew of the Great Depression going on in America and Europe. One reason was that it didn't affect China very much, and another reason was that international news was hard to find. Radios were a luxury; only the richest of the rich could afford one. Most of the commoners would never dream to own such an extravagant item, so they read newspapers. Most of the articles concerned the national issues; there were few articles concerning international affairs, so as a result, her family didn't really know much about the American presidents during the war. All she knew was that her family liked Roosevelt because he helped China during World War Two. Most people back then were ignorant of what went on in the rest world. In school, news was posted daily on the bulletin boards in the hallway. Libraries also contained newspapers and magazines. Later, when the Japanese attack on Beijing was imminent (for they had already begun to take over the northeast part of China), she would step on a pedestal in the middle of the street and give speeches on how Japan is hungry to have more land, and broadcast updates on Japan's movements toward Beijing. To look at her now, I would never have imagined.

With only her to support her family, money became scarce, and slowly, they had to sell their possessions to pay for their expenses. Soon, only the house was left. By this time, her father could not move half of his body, her mother had died when she was 17, both her sisters had married, and her father had remarried. Whenever she came back from school, she would go to younger students' houses and tutor them in specific subjects for 20 Yuan per month. Her most interesting experience was when a 19 year old wanted to get accepted into high school the upcoming year, but had to make up three years of middle school. Each day, my grandmother would go to her house, and tutor her in physics, math, chemistry, history, and the girl would hire a special tutor to teach her English. In the end, she got accepted to a very prominent high school. Another student of hers wanted to learn about ancient Chinese history, but my grandmother herself knew nothing, so she would go to a class everyday to learn the history, and come back in the evening to teach the student what she had learned. In this way, she just barely had enough to put food on the table.

In 1938, she graduated. The Japanese had already arrived in 1937; the hardest part of her life was just beginning. The Chinese were forced to eat bitter bread, made of ground up tree bark, peanut shells, and corncobs. Students that had just graduated and wanted to teach were not allowed to. A Japanese soldier was put in every school to supervise all conversations. If you were caught speaking badly about Japan, then you would be tortured or shot. Even if you commented on the economic slump, they would take it that you were implying that it was Japan's fault, and shoot you.

After weeks of searching, she finally found an opening. The principal of a private school wrote to ask her to teach his third and fourth graders, and of course she accepted. Two grades were combined in a small room with eighty kids altogether. While she taught one grade, the other would do the assigned work, so that no time was lost or wasted. Her salary was ten Yuan per month, which wasn't that bad, considering that a big bean-curd roll was only one fen (a Yuan is like a dollar, and fen is like a cent, not in value, but in proportion to each other). After working here for a year, she heard that the public schools, where she used to go, were offering 35 to 40 Yuan a month. The spots for permanent teachers were full, so she worked as a substitute, filling in for whatever subject necessary. Again, she did this for about a year, but she realized that she couldn't do it forever, so she found a permanent job卼eaching voice and coaching physical education. She didn't like singing and didn't know how to sing, and she couldn't do sit-ups, but it was a rare occasion that one would find a job, so she made the best of it. What she really wanted was to teach a real subject, like math, history, science, etc., but the principal only gave you that job if you bribed him with money, a thing she lacked. Also, those teachers were paid 45 Yuan a month instead of just 40. She left for another job after teaching 9 years of voice and 3 years of physical education. She found a school that was located in a prosperous city with a salt industry. The school was very new and had had lost of funding. She received 100 Yuan per month and she only had to teach 15 kids, but it was located near the sea, and the mosquitoes were unbearable. She went back to teaching at her old public school and taught for many, many more years. Last summer, when I went back to visit, I saw some of her old students. Each one of them had their own unique story to tell of how my grandmother made such a big impact on their life. Each one could recall a time when my grandmother would walk to their house to explain a problem they had had a question about, just so that they would fully understand the concept. When I look at all she has done, I really admire her, for even after going through a world war and the Cultural Revolution, she still maintained her will to share her knowledge, and never gave up. That is true perseverance.

Grandma, I love you for ever!