Yesterday, on Songbei Road at Song藻 Coal Mine, Tan Kecheng was making shoes at home. Photo by correspondent Gong Guangming.
At the age of two, Tan Kecheng suffered a sudden high fever. Kind-hearted neighbors raised money to save his life. To express gratitude for this life-saving kindness, over the past 10 years, Tan Kecheng, a 51-year-old disabled man from Qijiang, has made nearly 400 pairs of shoes and given them away for free. Yesterday, he gave another pair of shoes to his neighbor Zhao Xiaoli for free.
Now, he makes cloth shoes and gives them to his neighbors.
Tan Kecheng is 51 years old, disabled, unmarried, and lives with his 74-year-old mother Wu Birong. Currently, they reside at No. 57 Songbei Road, Song藻 Coal Mine, Chongqing Energy Group.
Yesterday, Gong Guangming, a staff member of the Party Committee Office of Song藻 Coal Mine at Chongqing Energy Group, witnessed a neighbor coming to collect a pair of shoes at Tan Kecheng's home. Gong Guangming said that around 10 a.m. yesterday, neighbor Zhao Xiaoli came to Tan Kecheng's house to pick up a pre-ordered cloth slipper. After receiving the finely crafted slippers, Zhao Xiaoli took out 100 yuan to give to Tan Kecheng. However, Tan Kecheng refused to accept the money: "This pair of shoes is a gift for you, it’s my small way of expressing gratitude."
Tan Kecheng said that when he was a child and fell ill, Zhao Xiaoli's family had contributed money to save his life, pulling him back from the brink of death.
Back then, neighbors pooled coins to save him.
Yesterday, Tan Kecheng's mother Wu Birong choked up while telling reporters that when Tan Kecheng was two years old, one evening he suddenly developed a high fever. At the time, the family was very poor and couldn't afford to send him to the hospital. On the third day, neighbor Zhou Ronghua came to visit and found that Tan Kecheng still had a high fever. She advised them to immediately take him to the hospital for treatment. Upon learning that the Tan family could not afford medical expenses for their son, Zhou immediately mobilized the neighbors and some kind-hearted people from the mine to donate money. Everyone contributed what they could, whether a few cents or a few dimes, and quickly raised several yuan.
Wu Birong said that she used these few yuan to take her son to a nearby hospital. After emergency treatment, her son survived but was left with polio.
Tan Kecheng said that as he grew older, his mother told him about those heart-wrenching stories and the help from many kind-hearted people. "My life was saved by good people, so I wanted to repay them someday."
When asked about who helped them back then, Wu Birogen said that due to the passage of time, most of the names have been forgotten. She only remembers that it was the neighbors and kind-hearted people from the mine.
Moved: Gave away 400 pairs in 10 years
Although most of the benefactors' names have been forgotten, Tan Kecheng still decided to repay their kindness. About 10 years ago, one winter, he started learning how to make cloth shoes. From then on, he began giving away the cloth shoes he made to his neighbors and miners at the mine.
Neighbor Shui QingSong said that the cloth slippers made by Tan Kecheng are very warm and have soft soles. "When he first gave me a pair of shoes, I took out 100 yuan to give him, but he refused." Li Quanmei, a hoist operator at the Mechanical Transportation Team of Song藻 Coal Mine, said that Tan Kecheng made a pair of shoes for each member of his family. He tried to give Tan 300 yuan, but Tan later forcibly returned the money.
Currently, Tan Kecheng and his mother survive on a total of 600 yuan in assistance and subsidies. To make these cloth shoes, he often uses crutches to collect old clothes for shoe material and disinfects discarded old tires to use as soles.
"It takes him about a week to make a pair of shoes because of his mobility issues. Sometimes, he can rush to make a pair in two or three days," said Tan Kecheng's mother Wu Birong yesterday. In the past 10 years, her son has made nearly 400 pairs of shoes and given them away to neighbors for free.
Chief Reporter Huang Ping