KMT Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) yesterday asked the media to help her find two American women who gave both financial and emotional support to her impoverished family more than 25 years ago.
Yang said the family never met the two American women and that all she remembers are their Chinese names -- Hsieh Yi-lien (謝伊蓮) and Hsieh Tuo-bi (謝托比).
Flanked by her family, Yang called a press conference yesterday to ask the media to help her search for two American benefactors who helped her family between 1973 and 1976.
"We lost contact with them in 1976 and lost all our previous correspondence with them after moving our home several times," she said. "We were really grateful for their help during the worst days of our lives. After all these years, I would like to have a chance to say `thank you' to them in person for my family," Yang said, with tears in her eyes.
During the 1960s and the 1970s, Yang's family fell into financial difficulties after her father died in 1969.
Yang said that the family lived in Taoyuan County during that time and her mother, who was illiterate, was left with six children and a large debt from her late husband's medical expenses.
Through the arrangement of the Chinese Fund for Children and Families Taiwan (CCF Taiwan, 家扶基金會), under the Christian Children's Fund, two American women started sponsoring Yang's little sister and brother in 1973.
Yang said that the two women not only assisted the family materially but also frequently wrote them letters of encouragement.
"One Christmas, Hsieh Yi-lien and her family wrote to us to explain what Christmas was and sent us a huge box of chocolates for a Christmas present. That was the first time we ever tasted chocolate," Yang recalled.
Yang also said that when her little sister fell ill, Hsieh Yi-lien sent her a ballet tutu because the little girl had always wanted one.
"My little sister treasured it so much that she only wore it once before she died," Yang said, between sobs.
Yang said that even after her younger sister's death from leukemia in early 1976, Yang, as a secondary school student, still kept in contact with the two sponsors for a few months, using simple English.
However, she said she has long forgotten the benefactors' English names and lost contact with them. The CCF doesn't have documentation related to the women.
Yang recalled that when the women were sponsoring the Yangs, Hsieh Yi-lien and her husband were about fifty years old and lived in Portland.
"They had four children and as far as I can remember, they also had grandchildren," she said.
As for Hsieh Tuo-bi (謝托比), Yang said that she was about 80 years old when she sponsored her younger brother.
Anyone with information about the two women is asked to please call Ms. Lee in Yang's Taoyuan office at 03-346-5510 or 5509.
RSS