He Promised Me My Youth, Then Ruined the Rest of My Life
In 1937, with the Japanese army closing in, seventeen-year-old Lin Qinghe and her childhood sweetheart, Lu Jingchen, became engaged in a mountain village in southern Anhui. Before they could marry, Lu Jingchen enlisted. His parting words, “Wait for me,” became the obsession of Qinghe’s entire life. She stayed in their old home, beside the plum tree and their unfinished engagement, enduring war, famine, gossip, and loneliness. Her black hair turned white, and she waited until she went blind. For seventy-eight years, she remained faithful to him, stitching seventy-eight pairs of cloth shoes and letting jar after jar of green plums spoil, sacrificing all her youth and her life for a single promise.
(The author is a soft touch. Pester them for an update and they’ll post a whole bunch.)
