Tales of heartbreak and hope following 2008 quake
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LIFE AS NEW MOTHER
Like Liu, many parents lost children in the quake. According to the provincial government of Sichuan, a total of 5,335 school children died or went missing in the quake.
To comfort these mothers, the State Council drafted a new policy, helping those whose children were dead or disabled to have another baby.
According to a report by the Southern Metropolis Daily, about one third of the bereaved mothers gave birth or got pregnant again in 2009. In 2010, more than half of the bereaved mothers had or were expecting to have another child.
When Liu Xiaoling saw her newborn baby on Sept. 9, 2009, she cried.
"I felt like 'Xiang Xin is back,'" she said.
Her son, Xiang Xin, was died along with his 27 fourth-grade classmates in the Xinjian Primary School in the city of Dujiangyan.
Liu received 80,000 yuan from the government as compensation. She spent the money on her new baby.
Other mothers, like Ma Jun, prefer to keep the money intact.
"The money to me is like the life of my dead son," she said. "If I used it, I would feel like he was really gone."
She would rather borrow money if she needed it.
Almost all the mothers indulge their new babies. Ma's waist was injured in the quake and still aches from time to time. Despite this pain, she runs through the neighborhood after her one-year-old son, fearing he may fall down.
"I want to compensate for what I have lost," she said. "Therefore, I pour all my love for my deceased child onto him, although I know well that no one can replace another."
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