Tragedy destroys husband's desperate hope

By Yang Guang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-18 07:53

Dressed in her white wedding gown, Chang Ruijuan lay peacefully on the bier, as her husband Liu Guinian tenderly placed 99 roses around her, tears streaming down his face.

There was not a dry eye at the Babaoshan Mortuary where family, friends and netizens from Beijing and Hebei gathered to bid farewell to the young girl on February 22.

Just a year ago, many of them had gathered to toast the couple as they celebrated their marriage, the culmination of a romance that began in 2005.

Chang Ruijuan and Liu Guinian in a Beijing hospital before Chang passed away. Courtesy of Liu Guinian

Chang, then a 22-year-old Henan girl, met Liu Guinian, a 24-year-old Qinghai lad, in a cyber chat room. Chang had already gained admission to Shaanxi Normal University in 2002. Unable to afford the college tuition, she had landed in Xining, doing odd jobs with her uncle. Liu was then a senior in Qinghai University, majoring in urban planning.

The couple hit it off instantly and three months later, decided to meet face to face. "I cannot pinpoint what it is in her that attracts me the most but I know we are simply meant to be together," Liu said at that time.

In August, 2006, after working in Xining for a year, Liu Guinian decided to come to Beijing. Chang soon joined him.

The two began to build life from scratch. "It was really difficult. We lived in a basement. We both worked hard and had little time together," Liu says.

At the weekends, they would go to the Tongzhou habilitation center to help take care of orphaned and disabled children.

In May, 2007, they announced their engagement, completely unaware of a silent danger that was stealthily creeping into their lives. "Those were our happiest times. We started planning for our wedding," Liu recalls, saying they never thought much of Chang's occasional complaints of headaches.

On Sept 18, 2007, Chang began to bleed heavily and when rushed to Chaoyang Hospital, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

This is the most common type of leukemia or blood cancer in children under the age of 15, and the prognosis is usually bleak when it strikes older people. Since the early symptoms are not specific to ALL, any person troubled by a lasting, low-grade fever, unexplained weight loss, tiredness or shortness of breath should see a healthcare provider, says doctors.

The best course of treatment is a bone marrow transplant and Liu was soon bogged down by how he would come up with the money for the treatment.

Desperate to share his agony, Liu began to write a blog about their daily struggle with leukemia on sina.com, China's most popular portal. On Oct 23, 2007, just three days after he posted his first blog, Liu received his first donation of 500 yuan ($73) from a teacher thousands of km away in South China.

Some money kept trickling in but it was not enough. "I was willing to do anything to raise the required amount," says Liu. "When I heard of a campaign by sina.com that the blogger with the highest monthly click rate would get 10, 000 yuan, I contacted whomever I could, simply for a click."

Liu won and better still, his blog was put on the home page, attracting more attention. Soon there was enough money for the operation.

In July, 2008, Chang started becoming unresponsive to medication. An operation was now an urgency, but Chang was too weak. Doctors said the chances of success were less than 1 percent and refused to take the risk.

Liu begged and pleaded till they relented and the operation was done successfully.

"I thought a miracle had happened," Liu says. Chang seemed to make a quick recovery after the operation and during the 2009 Spring Festival, was even able to attend a temple fair.

Then a sudden turn for the worse. On Feb 7, Chang's body rejected the transplant and she fell prey to multiple organ failure. The end came on Feb 18.

"Her death was so sudden that I still can't believe it," says Liu.

"I was peeling an orange for her, and we were talking and laughing. Half an hour later, she lapsed into a coma and never woke up."

(China Daily 03/18/2009 page20)