I am a proud mother of three children, my last little one being delivered in the middle of this pandemic (疫情). She was born in August and her name is Aida.

Shortly after having Aida, my mother-in-law Ann showed me something she learned from her friend’s mother in an art class she attended weekly, She had showed me how to knit (编织) a scarf.

I spent a lot of time breastfeeding my sweet little girl, so I had some extra time to do something with my hands throughout the day. I enjoyed making the scarf so I purchased tons of yarn (线) since it was winter. I wanted to make scarves for my three children as Christmas gifts.

There was a new family that moved in down the street. The only daughter of the family was Jane, a shy girl, aged 14, the same age of my oldest son David. It seemed that she came from a financially disadvantaged family, for she always wore old clothes. Worse still, in such cold days, she had no more clothes to wear and trembled with cold.

Due to the pandemic, society was thrown into crisis mode. Schools were closed, food supplies and deliveries were suspended and children were stuck at home. In such discouraging time, however, they became good companions, talking and playing at home or around the houses.

It was dreadfully cold this winter. Every time David came back from outside, with red face, he always cried, “Mum, it is freezing outside!” Then, he came over to see whether I finished the scarf. I could tell how impatient he was to wear my scarf sooner! I had to speed the project to satisfy his expectation. But David comforted me by saying he could wait a few days. What a kind and considerate boy he was! Then my great art project finally was accomplished on the morning ahead of Christmas.

3 . Exercise and I had never had a good relationship due to my fear of sports. From a young age, my dad _______ me into a dozen sports. I didn’t like any of them, _______.

When I entered the University of Regina, my dad _______ telling me “You have to find a way to stay _______.” or “You don’t want to get the Freshman 15, do you?” So I _______ to give swimming a shot, but I _______ managed to go to the pool twice during the fall semester (学期). Worse still, I was _______ to convince myself that’s OK.

The spring semester came. A friend of mine _______ me if I wanted to try Zumba (尊巴) with her. All I knew about Zumba was that it was basically a kind of exercise: dancing to Latin pop songs. It didn’t sound too bad, but I couldn’t be _______.

I went, and that was it. Zumba became my ________ of tea. The instructor would always say, “Don’t worry about the steps. Have fun. Do your own thing.” That removed my ________ of sports. I didn’t have to be ________. I didn’t even have to be good. I just needed to ________ the music and move. Zumba did ________ me from the Freshman 15, and it also did so much more. It let me make ________ with my unpleasant past about physical exercise, and enjoy staying healthy.

4 . In a certain village lived a farmer and his only son. The son was a thief who always went about stealing from people’s homes. He continued this bad lifestyle till the day his cup got filled. He stole heavy sum of money from the richest man in their village, but that day he didn’t escape successfully as he used to. The rich man contacted the police immediately when he found out that his money was missing and the police started investigating, and finally they found out that the boy stole the money so they sent him to prison.

After some months, it was time for farming and the farmer was already old and weak and couldn’t dig the ground any more, so the old farmer wrote this letter to his son in prison. “Son, this year I will not plant cassava and yam because I can’t dig the field, I know if you were here you would have helped me”. The son was really touched by his father’s letter so he thought of a plan, and replied his father “Dad, don’t even think of digging the field because that’s where I buried the money I stole”.

On reading this letter, the policeman went early in the morning and dug the whole field in search of the money but nothing was found. The next day the son wrote his father again “Dad, you can now plant your cassava and yam. This is the best I can do from here.”

Dad replied “My son, you are too powerful indeed, even in prison you still command policemen to work for me. I was so surprised to see the policeman and his team holding hoes and shovels, digging my farm. Next time I will write to you when I want to harvest.

Eric was working in a selling business. He had been on the road visiting people for more than a month without going home. He couldn’t wait to get back to see his wife and children. It was coming up on Mother’s Day, and he usually tried to make it “back home”, but this year he was just too busy and too tired. The day when he was driving in a small town, he saw a flower shop. He said to himself, “I know what I will do. I’ll send my mother some roses.”

He stopped and went into the flower shop and saw a young man talking to the girl in it. “How many roses can I get for fifty dollars?” the boy asked. The girl was trying to explain that roses were expensive. Maybe the young man would be happy with something else.

“No. I have to have roses,” he said. “My mom was badly sick last year and I didn’t spend much time with her. I want to get something special. It has to be red roses, because that is her favorite,” He was stubborn.

The girl in the shop looked up at Eric and was just shaking her head. Something inside of Eric was touched by the boy’s voice. He wanted to get those roses so badly. Eric had been blessed (幸运的) in his business, and he looked at the girl and silently said that he would pay for the boy’s roses.

The girl looked at the young man and said, “OK, I will give you a dozen red roses for your dollars.” The young man almost jumped into the air. He took the flowers and ran out of the store. It was worth more than fifty dollars just to see that kind of excitement.

Eric ordered his own flowers and asked the girl to have it delivered to his mother. After that, with a relief he drove down the road. Not long after his driving, he saw the boy walking to a graveyard (墓地).

Eric stopped his car and followed the young man.

Eric went into the car in tears.

It took place in a teacher’s family. One day, Ben was playing basketball in the living room after school, when he accidentally threw the ball at a vase sitting on the shelf. The vase dropped to the floor and a large piece broke off. What made Ben more upset was that the vase was not a common decoration but an antique (古董), which was handed down through generations from the 18th century. It was also his mother’s favourite possession. To cover his terrible action, the terrified boy glued the pieces together hurriedly and put the vase back to its place.

As the mother herself dusted the vase every day, she naturally noticed the cracks (裂纹) that evening. To her surprise, the repair work was actually very good. At dinner time, she asked her boy if he broke the vase. Fearing punishment, the suddenly inspired boy said that a neighbour’s cat jumped in from the window and he couldn’t drive it away no matter how hard he tried. It raced around the living room and finally knocked the vase off its shelf. His mother was quite clear that her son was lying, for all the windows were closed before she left for work each morning and opened after she returned. However, in the face of her son’s nervous eyes and the suspicious looks of the other family members, Ben’s mother remained calm. She realized she shouldn’t just simply blame and punish her son for lying. She came up with another idea.

Before going to bed, the boy found a note from his mother in his room, asking him to go to the study at once. The boy thought he would now be punished but, as he had already lied, he was determined to deny everything to the end, no matter how angry his mum became.

In the study, calmly bathed in the light, his mothers face showed no sign of anger. On seeing her son push open the door and cautiously enter, she took a chocolate box out of a drawer and gave him one.

The mother said, “This chocolate is a reward for your imagination: a window-opening cat!”

Now with some chocolates in hand, the boy’s bad attitude disappeared.

9 . Chen Xingrong, 16, was born with autism(自闭症). “We did not understand why such a thing would happen to us,” says Chen’s father Chen Xunhu. He quit his job at a computer company and devoted his full attention to helping his son. In 2012, Chen Xunhu learned that swimming could help people with autism improve their articulation (发音) and physical growth, so he spent months teaching his son to swim.

“The efforts made no difference in the first three months,” he recalls. To his surprise, after another three months, he discovered that his son had developed the ability to control his breath under water, which significantly boosted his confidence. “I used to plan all his exercises for him, but now it is all up to him,”says the father. “He decides how many exercises he wants to do, and we respect his choices.” In spite of all the hardships in life, Chen Xingrong managed to become an outstanding swimmer, thanks to constant training and the support of his parents. Last year, he won five medals, including a gold, at the 11th National Games for Persons with Disabilities and the eighth National Special Olympic Games.

In 2010, an autism-themed film, titled Ocean Heaven, hit the big screen in China. It describes how a dying father attempts to teach his son the necessary life skills to live without him. “My wife and I watched the film in the theater,” he says. “We wept uncontrollably because we could resonate with the film’s characters.”

Since then, as well as swimming, helping his son learn basic life skills is also an important aim for the father. Thanks to his efforts, Chen Xingrong has learned to buy food in the market in their neighborhood He also does voluntary jobs at supermarkets and fast-food restaurants, such as arranging shelves and cleaning dining tables. “He is part of the community, and I hope he will live a normal life in the future. There is nothing that we want more than that,” says Chen Xunhu.