(Minghui.org) I was diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago. When I first found out, I fell into deep despair and felt that death could take me at any moment. I still had my parents, but my father was bedridden. My in-laws were still alive. My son hadn’t yet married or started a family. There were still many unfinished things in my life. I could not let my elderly parents bury me—that would be the worst unfilial act. What should I do? I was completely devastated.
I had surgery and went through round after round of chemotherapy. The hospital became my lifeline and I clung to it tightly. The chemotherapy caused severe hair loss. My complexion turned dark, my body weakened and became frail, I felt as if a gust of wind could blow me away. I wore a sad face every day, frequently going in and out of the hospital with a wig on. All the money my husband worked so hard to earn was spent on my medical bills.
The hospital recommended a medicine that was imported. It was very expensive and not covered by insurance. Our family had already run out of money, but my instinct to survive made me want the treatment. Then I was also diagnosed with lung cancer. The savings our family accumulated over decades was gone. My husband looked at me helplessly and said, “If you really want the treatment, we can sell the house.”
At this critical moment, when my whole family was in financial distress, a cousin heard about my situation. She suggested that I practice Falun Dafa and said that as long as I practiced sincerely, my health would improve and we wouldn’t need to sell the house. She suffered from an incurable illness when she was young and couldn’t work or even do housework, but after she practiced Falun Dafa she recovered and could do everything.
I wasn’t ready to accept what she said. I only wanted to go to the hospital, but I had no money. In desperation, I even sought help from a “spirit medium,” who deceived me. She told me that if I gave her 10,000 yuan, she could guarantee I would live five more years.
My cousin patiently and repeatedly explained the pros and cons to me, gradually convincing and guiding me. After I began practicing Falun Dafa my health improved, and I experienced the extraordinary and miraculous nature of Dafa several times, which greatly strengthened my confidence in practicing.
During this time, I also went through many hardships, both mentally and physically. I realized that when I tried to solve problems with ordinary human thinking, the more I thought, the more painful and complicated things became. But when I looked at things from the perspective of the Fa, I truly experienced that ““After passing the shady willow trees, there will be bright flowers and another village ahead!”” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)
For example, after my first surgery for breast cancer, my mother-in-law said, “I won’t be able to rely on you when I get old!” I felt helpless, thinking that I didn’t choose to have this illness. My mother-in-law has two sons and one daughter, and my husband is the eldest. She entrusted all family matters to her younger daughter-in-law, and said, “We can’t rely on your sister-in-law anymore. The family will depend on you from now on.” My in-laws also handed over their property and income to her husband, their younger son.
After my second surgery for lung cancer, I was lying in bed at home recovering. In order to earn money my husband had to work in a distant city. I was alone, and not one of my nine in-laws came to visit or even phoned to check on me. I felt as if I had been abandoned.
On the fourth day, my phone rang and then stopped before I could answer. I saw it was my mother-in-law’s number, so I immediately called back and asked, “Mom, did you call me?” She replied coldly, “I dialed the wrong number,” and immediately hung up. I felt extremely hurt and angry, so I told my cousin about it, who said, “If you want to cultivate, you should think about Master’s teachings. She is helping you improve your character—you should thank her.”
My cousin also said, “What your mother-in-law did was not right, but if you look at it from her perspective, you can understand. Think about it—her son’s hard-earned money was all spent on your treatment. In her eyes, she probably feels she can’t rely on you in her old age. You must cultivate diligently. When your health improves and you can take care of her in the future, her opinion of you will change.”
In recent years, I have gone through many major life events, including my son’s marriage, the birth of my grandson, and my mother’s passing. There were countless complicated and upsetting matters. Whenever I faced hardships and felt I couldn’t get through them, my cousin reminded me to use Master’s teachings to guide me. If I hadn’t practiced Falun Dafa, I would never have been able to endure all of this.
Although I was practicing, at the beginning I still relied heavily on medication. The hospital told me to have a check-up every three months, but I went every two and a half months—I was worried about my test results. I lived in fear every day.
Back when the persecution began, from July 1999 to around 2003, the Chinese Communist Party broadcast propaganda on television every day to slander Falun Dafa. This had a deep impact on people in China, including me. My cousin explained, “Those are all lies the CCP made up to defame Falun Dafa and to make people discriminate against practitioners. Master never said you cannot take medicine if you practice Falun Dafa, or that you cannot go to the hospital, or that practicing means you will live forever.” She also said, “Don’t people die in hospitals too? People die every day in big hospitals—that’s normal. Why isn’t that ever mentioned on TV: ‘Someone went to the hospital and died there, so don’t go to hospitals anymore?’”
Two and a half years ago, I sincerely resolved that I no longer wanted to take medicine or go to the hospital for check-ups. My cousin said I had reached the point of letting go of my dependency on medicine. If I didn’t finish the exercises in the morning, my husband would remind me to complete them. He is very grateful that Falun Dafa saved my life and also saved us from losing our house. He worked hard for more than 10 years to buy that house, and now that he is 60, life would have been very difficult if we lost our home.
These days I am in good spirits, healthy, and glowing. My coworkers say I look even better than when I was younger. I can do everything now—take my grandson to kindergarten, handle all the housework, visit my elderly father and my in-laws regularly, bring them good food, help clean and wash, and chat with them. My mother-in-law is always happy to see me, and when I leave, she repeatedly says, “Come again soon, come often, don’t stop coming!”
I am deeply grateful to Master and Dafa for giving me a second life and restoring my dignity as a human being!