"Bitter?" the reporter asked Grandma Shen. "How could it not be bitter? But the three little ones are still young, what can I do? It will be better when they grow up and go to school." Saying this, Grandma Shen began to sob, and two streams of hot tears naturally flowed from the corners of her eyes.
Grandma Shen's behavior of raising her grandchildren by scavenging also moved the neighbors greatly. Some people gave her clothes that their children had worn out, others directly gave her waste materials, and some invited her to their homes for meals during holidays and gave her money for relief. The adobe house where the old lady lived before collapsed due to rain because of its dilapidation, so the neighbors helped her build three small rooms by "you providing a stone, me contributing a brick."
On March 1st, in Shen's Village Group of Zhaozhai Village, Guandian Township, Xixian County, Xinyang City, the reporter saw the 75-year-old Grandma Shen cooking for her three grandsons in a dilapidated kitchen. "The rice is given by the neighbors before the New Year, and the vegetables are picked up by the old lady from the street," villager Shen Xianglian told the reporter.
Xinyang, March 2nd (Panzaijun, Zhang Yinxiang) - The daughter-in-law couldn't bear the poverty of the family and left, the son suddenly fell ill and died while working outside, and an elderly woman over seventy years old in Xinyang City, Henan Province, used her frail body to raise her three orphaned grandchildren under the age of ten by scavenging, touching all the neighbors.
In Grandma Shen's home, the reporter saw that the three rooms built with money collected by the neighbors were only more than 50 square meters in total, low and narrow. Various basins and jars were scattered on the walkway, looking dirty and messy, among which there were rotten radishes that the children had just picked up from the street. Inside the room, apart from some broken tables and stools, there was nothing else of any value. The three grandchildren wore simple and worn-out clothes, one of which had a long tear in the thin coat of the eldest child, exposing the cotton inside.
The assistance from the neighbors was but a drop in the bucket for Grandma Shen's family. Grandma Shen said that her greatest hope was for her grandchildren to study and become successful, earn money, and change the current situation of the family, "If the government can help us, it would be even better."
"Grandma Shen has a disease and needs medication all year round. There are three boys in the family, the eldest is eight years old, the second is six, and the youngest is four. The eldest suffers from epilepsy, and when he has an attack, he foams at the mouth and falls unconscious," according to local villagers. Due to the poverty of the family, the eldest has dropped out of school at home because he couldn't afford the cost of exercise books, etc. Usually, the three children go to the street with their grandmother to scavenge, selling scraps to subsidize the household, and picking up leftover vegetable leaves to cook meals.
The villagers said that the impoverished Shen family had not enjoyed the rural低保 (low-income assistance). "Their family is indeed very difficult," said Secretary Yu of the Discipline Inspection Committee of Guandian Township, Xixian County. The Guandian Township Government has not yet received the低保 application for Shen Dianhu's family from the village, and there are no more低保 slots available in the township.
Grandma Shen's family, who have been farmers for generations, lived in poverty. In the spring of 2010, her daughter-in-law, unable to endure the hardship, left home and never returned. A few months later, her son Shen Dianhu suddenly fell ill and died while working outside, leaving only the elderly Grandma Shen and her three young grandchildren. This made the originally poor family suffer even more. Grandma Shen endured her grief and resolutely supported this broken home by collecting scrap.