A day that was supposed to mark happiness turned into tragedy when a high school student found out, just before receiving an award for filial piety, that his grandmother — to whom his devotion was being recognized, had been found dead on Friday.
Wu Chi-feng’s (吳祺峰) grandmother went missing on Wednesday after she went out to pick bamboo shoots, and her motorcycle was found near a river. It was in the river where her body was found.
PHOTO: WANG HAN-PING, TAIPEI TIMES
Her family members said she might have been washed into the river because of the wet weather conditions, as she was hurrying home to prepare for a trip to Taipei to attend the ceremony where Wu was to be honored.
Wu, born with a cleft palate, was raised by his grandparents after his parents divorced when he was very young.
When Wu was still a child, he helped his grandparents by working with them on their farm. His grandfather died of an illness a few years ago and his grandmother later began suffering from a degenerative joint disease that prevented her from standing for too long.
Since then, Wu had been working even more to help his grandmother around the home.
A student at Sinying Senior High School, Wu would arrive home from school and begin cooking dinner and bringing water to his grandmother after she had spent the day doing farm work. He would also massage her legs from time to time and during school holidays, he worked at the farm so that his grandmother could take some days off.
Wu went to Taipei on Sunday last week for treatment of his cleft palate and stayed in Taipei over the weekend to attend a college qualification examination the next day.
He anxiously looked for his grandmother’s whereabouts after she went missing and at one point even thought about skipping the award ceremony hosted by the Ministry of the Interior, which his grandmother was supposed to attend.
Wu was one of 34 people receiving the award conferred by Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長).Wu rushed home right after the ceremony.
Dedicating the award to his grandmother at the funeral home, Wu said he had told his grandmother not to worry about him and that he would take good care of the family.
“I will study hard to pass the university exams and find a good job since those were the greatest wishes of my grandmother,” Wu said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday expressed his condolences to Wu for the death of his grandmother.
Ma paid Wu a visit in Tainan County’s Baihe Township (白河) and asked him to be strong in the face of his grandmother’s death.
Holding Wu’s hands, Ma told the teenager that he needed to be strong in this difficult period and take good care of himself.
Ma also expressed hope that Wu would work hard and enter university next year.
Ma, who doubles as the chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), said he had instructed the party’s Tainan County chapter to stay in contact with Wu and provide him with any necessary help.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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