In Memory of Fellow Falun Dafa Practitioner Ms. He Xiuling

On April 8th, 2004, I was reading a Minghui (Chinese version of Clearwisdom, a Falun Gong website) article published on April 5th when a familiar and kind face appeared before my eyes. Could it be my good friend I had come to know I was reading about? I opened my eyes widely and read on. It was then that I learned her full name, He Xiuling, and the sad news of her death on March 11, 2004. Another kindhearted person was now dead as a result of persecution at the hands of Chinese police officers. There was no one nearby when she died, and she didn't even have on any clothes. Instead, she wore a handcuff on one of her hands that locked her to the sickbed and a bandage wound around her waist.

Last June 4, under the guidance of fellow practitioners, I had arrived in Wendeng City. There I was involved in activities to clarify the truth about Falun Gong alongside local Falun Dafa practitioners, and I was arranged to print truth clarification materials and brochures with Sister He (Editors' Note: In China, people often call their peers 'sister' or 'brother' to connote respect and friendship).

Sister He was very frugal. She was never luxurious, nor did she ever squander money. When I first met her, she did not even own a dining table. She usually stood by the stove during her meals, and she drank water straight from the faucet. I remember that she once took me to the market, where she spent only one or two yuan(1) and bought a lot of vegetables. They were priced at only one yuan per five or eight jin [~2.5 to 4 kilogrammes]. At that moment I thought to myself, "Isn't such a life too simple?"

Normally, Sister He would not talk much. But one time I brought up the subject of Wang Lixuan and her son, and Sister He explained to me, "We went to Beijing to protect Falun Dafa together. At that time, I didn't know her name was Wang Lixuan. Her child was very good, and he never cried or made any noise when others held him. When we were arrested, none of us would tell the police where we came from, so the police took us to a place in Liaoning Province. Lixuan Wang wrote 'Falun Dafa is great' with chalk on the window of the police car when the police were not paying attention. The police asked who wrote it, and nobody answered. In the meantime, Wang Lixuan looked forward calmly. Even though the police took Wang Lixuan to Liaoning, she would tell them nothing, and they had no choice but to set her free." Sister He also spoke of her husband, who was an outstanding elderly ship captain. He was also a very steadfast Falun Dafa practitioner. His superiors once brought a picture of Master Li before him asking him repeatedly who was on the picture. He replied firmly each time, "He is my Master!" His workplace leader then took a pot of hot water and poured it over his head.

Sister He never neglected studying the Falun Dafa books. Upon finishing the fifth exercise, the sitting meditation, she would put the main book of Falun Gong Zhuan Falun [Turning the Law Wheel] in front of herself and begin to memorise it. She said that many Falun Dafa practitioners had already memorised the entire book and she herself had even tried to do the same before, only to give up midway. She regretted this, and she did not want to miss another chance. Under her influence, I started to memorise the book, too. But after only getting through the first lecture, I was separated from Sister He because of my involvement in Internet article coordination tasks.

When I returned to the materials production site on the afternoon of August 28, 2004, Sister He was gone, and the police had destroyed the place. Two other women in their fifties who had worked with us had also been taken.

After the materials production site was destroyed, I went back to my hometown. I kept sending forth righteous thoughts for Sister He and the other three sisters. I was constantly worried about the truth clarification work, and finally I saw the news of Sister He's death.

(1) Yuan - 500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.