November 2005.
At that time, the Yancheng Welfare Home was only composed of a few multi-story buildings. The size of the area and the environment inside the home were far less superior than they are now. However, the wall was tall and deep, not careless, and separated the inside and outside of the hospital into two. world.
Since some personnel in the welfare home, especially some children, have special and sensitive situations, to prevent risks, under normal circumstances, the hospital will refuse to accept single-person condolence visits. Unless the visiting individual can meet the hospital's nearly stringent visiting conditions. For example, visitors must have a social worker certificate or be a senior volunteer.
On this day, Yancheng Welfare Home came to a visitor who was able to enter the hospital smoothly. Her name was Li Mei. She was carrying a small bag of various certificates. Not only did she have a professional social worker certificate, she also had various volunteer certificates issued to her by many communities, streets, and county social welfare institutes in Yancheng, as well as "outstanding volunteers" and "most beautiful" certificates. Volunteer" and other types of honorary certificates.
Gui Ying, who was in charge of reception, was very enthusiastic. Whether it was then or now, there are very few people with professional social work certificates. At the same time, due to the special nature of the work, the hospital has always been short of manpower and the work is stressed. At the same time, the staff in the welfare home, especially the children, will feel very warm after being visited once. When the person leaves, they will feel particularly lost, which invisibly increases the psychological harm. Therefore, individual visitors like Li Mei, who have the dual identities of senior volunteers and professional social workers, are more welcomed by the welfare home than those group visits that occasionally offer hurried condolences in the form of gifts.
Although she knew that Li Mei in front of her should be familiar with the environment of the orphanage, as usual, Gui Ying still enthusiastically led Li Mei to get familiar with it in the yard.
The first thing they went to was Building 1, the innermost building. The appearance of this building was not much different from that of an ordinary kindergarten, but it was eerily quiet.
"The children in the worst condition in the hospital live here." Gui Ying stood in front of the security door on the first floor. She took out the key and paid attention to Li Mei. Seeing that she didn't look around or look nervous, she felt more reassured. , while opening the door, he said: "The floors are divided according to age. The higher you go, the older the children are."
Li Mei smiled and nodded with a normal expression, following closely behind Gui Ying.
"There are 31 children on this floor, but there are only two staff members. There is no way, there are not enough manpower. It is not that we can't hire people, but that we can't hire professional and caring people like you. We don't dare to hire ordinary people." Gui Ying said.
Li Mei noticed that among the more than 20 children, not one was healthy. There are children with cerebral palsy, lying on the bed with their eyes rolled up and drooling; there are children with mental retardation, who make strange screams from time to time; there are intersex babies, lying silently with their eyes open; This child has no canthus membranes and cannot see anything. He keeps opening and closing his mouth in the blink of an eye.
When several children saw Gui Ying, they drooled and said inarticulately: "Auntie, I want to eat Shaqima..."
Gui Ying patiently coaxed the children back, then turned around and explained to Li Mei: "There was a group of teachers and students from the university who visited here together before and gave a lot of snacks and Sha Qima. These children were always thinking about Sha Qi. The smell of Ma.”
There was a boy with normal intelligence but disabled legs. He seemed very happy when he saw Li Mei. He desperately held on to the window sill and tried to stand up to show her.
"This is Aunt Li. She may come to take care of you in the future." Gui Ying said to the child.
The child was very disappointed and immediately sat motionless on the bed without saying hello to Li Mei.
After the two returned to the corridor, Gui Ying quietly said to Li Mei: "That child is very smart and thinks you are here to adopt the child."
Li Mei nodded and said nothing.
One floor further up, there is also a security door at the stairwell.
This floor has only 6 bedrooms and 14 children, all of whom have cerebral palsy.
"They look like children, but they are actually fifteen or sixteen years old." Gui Ying said softly to Li Mei in the corridor.
These children were obviously in adolescence, but they only had the bodies of children. They were either lying on the bed or sitting in children's chairs, rolling their eyes and drooling. Their skin was pale and bloodless, and they all had shaved heads.
A sixteen-year-old girl stood up repeatedly when she saw Gui Ying and Li Mei coming in, with a strange-looking smile, probably because she wanted to say hello to Li Mei. Li Mei sat by the bed and stretched out her hand to help her, but the little girl held Li Mei's hand tightly with her little hand and refused to let go for a long time. Li Mei couldn't see her smile, only her eyes were full of emotional and complex emotions. Li Mei touched her head, like coaxing a swaddling child, and comforted her before leaving.
On the third floor lived a girl about twenty years old, with normal intelligence, but suffering from "porcelain doll" syndrome. Her skin was pale, smooth, and even reflective. Except for one arm that could move, the rest of her body was twisted.
Gui Ying woke her up while covering her with quilt. She moved, and the corner of the quilt on her lower body moved inward, revealing a curled leg with a shocking surgical suture scar.
When she saw Li Mei in front of her, she burst into tears and cried like a child of several years old.
Under the comfort of Gui Ying and Li Mei, she quickly stopped crying, then raised her only movable hand to shake hands with Li Mei, muttering a few tones in her mouth. Li Mei stretched out her hand. She held Li Mei's hand tightly and refused to let go for a long time.
Her hands were cold, cold, soft, and small.
"This child has never gotten out of bed and walked around since she was born." After coming out, Gui Ying said softly: "She knows everything and can feel the love of others. She will be very excited every time she sees a new face coming to visit. .Although she has lost her ability to express herself, her emotions are the same as those of us normal people."
The next two floors were empty, but the stairs were still locked.
Building No. 2 is full of elderly people with "three noes", and there are not as many children as there are.
Building 3, which is slightly outside, is full of normal children, and they basically go to the nearest school. When they go to school, the welfare home will arrange staff to pick them up and drop them off based on their age and needs. At this time, the staff acted more as their parents, making them look no different from other children.
In this building, in addition to about twenty children who are still in kindergarten, elementary school, and junior high school, there are also several children who are in high school and college. Since they are all attending school, they will not come back until winter and summer vacations.
At this time, it was time to study in the afternoon, and the entire Building 3 was deserted.
There is a row of honor walls erected in the open space outside the building. Children who excel in studies and make significant progress will have their photos and names posted on the wall. The photos on the wall include children who have successfully passed university, children who have completed vocational high school and found jobs, and primary and secondary school students who have been rated as "Three Good Students" or "Excellent Class Leaders" by the school.
Gui Ying pointed to the photo of one of the children and said, "This child is the smartest and most academic in our school, and he will definitely be the most promising in the future."
Li Mei took a closer look and saw that the child in the photo had thick eyebrows, big eyes, red lips and white teeth, and a bright smile. She also smiled and said, "This kid is lovable at first sight."
Gui Ying said with a very proud smile: "He is the 'star of hope' of our hospital."
Li Mei echoed with a smile, couldn't help but look at it a few more times, and then remembered the child's name - Li Zhudao.
On the same day, Li Mei started volunteering in the hospital. Whether with children or the elderly, Li Mei's communication and care work are impeccable.
It wasn't until eight or nine o'clock at night that Li Mei was finished with her work for the day. Seeing that it was getting too late, Gui Ying simply packed up an unused office room in the courtyard and used it as Li Mei's living room.
No one expected that Li Mei would stay in the orphanage for more than ten years. She always goes out to "work" in the early morning, returns to the hospital to do volunteer work in the evening, and sleeps in her own living room at night. In addition to illness or physical discomfort, the occasional gap of a few days is also because her two children who are out of town come home to reunite with her. Li Mei's volunteer career in the welfare home has truly lasted for more than ten years.
She works meticulously, is conscientious, and works hard without complaint. Both the children and the elderly speak highly of her, and the hospital management also acquiesces to her "privilege" of treating the orphanage as her own home. After the welfare home underwent a large-scale expansion on the original basis, the hospital leaders even held a special meeting to discuss whether to retain her personal "living room". In the end, they unanimously agreed that she had made a "special contribution" to the home and should be "important to her." The "room" should be reserved and kept until she applies for cancellation.
As for what Li Mei's "job" is, the hospital and Gui Ying have verbally understood it, but have never verified it. What they care more about is that such a down-to-earth and hard-working "most beautiful volunteer" is really rare to find. At the same time, neither the hospital nor Gui Ying knew the exact names of Li Mei's two children, and their specific whereabouts.
At that time, Li Zhudao was attending school and preparing for the college entrance examination with all his strength. I hurried back to the courtyard during the winter vacation to spend the New Year. As for such a new person in the courtyard, he didn't know about it at all. After the college entrance examination, he went out to work during the summer vacation. After receiving the admission notice from the police academy, he returned to the academy again. After that, he went to school and worked, and had less and less time to come back. Occasionally, he heard about a man in the academy. I have been a volunteer for many years, but I have never been introduced to it by a serious person.
Perhaps Li Zhudao had met Li Mei accidentally in the courtyard, but he didn't know which one he had met was "Li Mei." After all, with the development of the times and the progress of society, the number of caring people and volunteers who care about social welfare homes is increasing day by day, and more and more people come to volunteer. You can often see some familiar and familiar people here. , unfamiliar faces.
