“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” ― Washington Irving “Children are knives, my mother once said. They don’t mean to, but they cut. And yet we cling to them, don’t we, we clasp them until the blood flows.” ― Joanne Harris, The Girl with No Shadow “The greatest heroes in life are those that never give up on someone. They stick it out and make it work. They sacrifice things in their life, in order to help others grow. They give up what they want because someone needs it more. They work hard and overcome adversity. They fail for a moment, but get back up on their feet to show others they don’t have to stay down. They show their loved ones that love is not “proved” by conformity. They teach others that having a voice is a sign of courage, and they will not stay silent to make people feel comfortable. They are fearless and will do whatever it takes to bring about the greatness in the ones they love because doing so brings them peace. Their name is---MOM.” ― Shannon L. Alder

1. HeroesHeroes
Dedicated to all Mothers in theDedicated to all Mothers in the
World who risk their lives forWorld who risk their lives for
the ones under their care andthe ones under their care and
the brave people in Sichuanthe brave people in Sichuan
Earthquake, 2008Earthquake, 2008

2. An earthquake, magnitude 8.0, struck Sichuan province of
China at 2:28PM, May 12, 2008. The epicenter of the earthquake,
WENCHUAN, is about 90 miles from Chengdu.
The earthquake released more energy than 500 atomic bombs, 30
times more than the Kobe earthquake in Japan, 1995. By May 19,
there are more than 32,000 confirmed dead, more than 20,000 still
missing, and more than 4.7 million houses collapsed or heavily
damaged.

3. Cities close to the epicenter
are flattened;
whole mountains collapsed.

4. Devastation

5. Millions of people lost their beloved ones, their homes, their belongings.
Yet there is no looting, no complaints, just people helping each other (
CNN )

6. The highway to the
earthquake struck
city Dujianyang (20
mile from Chengdu)
was almost jammed
one hour after the
earthquake, not by
people fleeing the
aftershocks, but by
volunteers, led by
over 1,000 taxi
drivers, came from
Chengdu to rescue.
Chen Guangbiao( 陈光标 ), owner of a big construction company 1,500
miles from the disaster area, just 2 hour 30 minutes after the
earthquake, started transporting 60 construction machineries and led
120 volunteers to rescue. They arrived at the disaster area 24 hours
later, almost the same time as Army Engineering Corp.

7. Within hours, people rushed to
rescue. Blood donation lines
run for 100 yards, and people
waited hours to donate blood;
within 24 hours, all major
blood banks ran out storage
space.

8. Medical workers provided care under extreme conditions;
they even delivered many new born babies on the parking lot.
Wen Jiabao( 温家宝 ), 66, Chinese
Prime Minister, boarded on a plane
30 minutes after the earthquake, and
arrived in disaster area in 2 hours.
He has been the chief of the rescue
operation since then, working almost
around clock at the frontline with
rescue workers.

9. The first jumped off plane was Senior Colonel
Li Zhenbo( 李振波 ), 51.

10. 1,1000 paratroopers started boarding airplanes 2 hours after
earthquake. Despite heavy rain, high wind and thick cloud, they
jumped from over 20,000 foot high to remote mountain areas
where they did not even know if there would be a place for them
to land.

11. With roads buried by landslide and bad weather hammering airborne
operations, a group of 600 soldiers and medical teams, let by Major
General Xia Guofu( 夏国富 ), 57, Commander in Chief of Sichuan
Military District, walked 21 hours straight on foot in mountain area,
carrying heavy relief supplies, risking landslide and falling rocks.
They became the first group to arrive at the epicenter of the
earthquake.

12. Soldiers and rescue workers
working around clock to rescue
people still buried. Unable to
transport heavy machineries to the
remote areas since roads are
buried by landslides, they often
have to use hands to move tons of
concrete.

13. People are rushing to donate money in millions, but no one can match Xu
Chao( 徐超 ), 60, on the right. He is a homeless in Nanjing, 1000 miles from
the disaster area. He saw the news and went to donate 5 Yuan in the
morning. He said people in the disaster area were worse off than him
because their lives were threatened. He came back in the afternoon,
donated another 100 Yuan ($14). He explained that all he had were pennies
and dimes, and he didn’t want to waste volunteer workers’ time to count
them, so he went to the bank to change everything he had into one big bill.
This is from a man who doesn’t have money to buy food for himself.

14. Song Xinying ( 宋馨懿 ), 3, pulled out from rubble after being
buried for 2 days. She was in critical condition and lost a leg,
but survived. Her parents hold each other’s hands and
shoulders face to face to make an arch to shield her from the
falling building. Her parents did not make it out.

15. A 5 year old boy was rescued
after being buried under
rubbles for 24 hours. His left
hand was broken, but he
smiled and saluted to his
rescuers. His smile made
everybody cry.

16. Zhang Jiwang( 张
吉万 ), 11, carrying
his
sister Zhang
Han( 张韩 ),
3 ， walked 12
hours straight to flee
the disaster center.

17. Yuan Wentin( 袁文婷 ), 26, first grade teacher. When the earthquake
struck, she rushed to carry her stunned students from classroom on the 3rd
floor to the ground. She managed to pull out most of her students, but the
building collapsed when she was trying to pull out the last few. At the last
moment of her life, she was trying to use her body to shield the students
from falling concrete.
Many teachers did the same thing. They
are 谭千秋、张米亚、苟晓超、吴忠洪、杜
正香 ......

18. This high school student was rescued from the collapsed
building. She lost both legs, and her both hands are broken.
The rescue workers were all in tears when they saw this.
She smiled to them: “Be Brave!”

19. This baby, after being buried over
24 hours, miraculously, was
rescued unscratched. He is
about 3-4 months old, and his
mother kneeled down, pinned her
head and hands on the ground to
shielded him from the falling
concrete, and milked him. His
mother did not make it out. A
rescue worker found his mom’s
cell phone in his wrapper. It had
a text message left by his
mother,
“Dear child, if you
survive, please
remember, Mom
loves you forever…”