Feeding Across Time: Raising My Little Sister During the War of Resistance

#AcrossTimeHealing #WartimeTears #TwoLittleGirlLeads #PeaceAndSafetyEveryYear

Six-year-old Su Nian'an never imagined that the old paper-cut window decoration her grandmother left behind would take her to a small courtyard in an occupied area in 1937.

There, she met a girl her own age named Shen Suining. She wore patched clothes, but her eyes shone like stars. "Big Sister, did you come to spend New Year with me?"

Su Nian'an said, "Yes! Let's put up window decorations, make dumplings, and stay up to welcome the new year together!"

But she didn't know that Shen Suining had not had a whole New Year celebration in three years. The Japanese had come, her family was broken apart, and her loved ones had scattered. Every New Year's Eve brought the sound of artillery and a desperate flight.

Two six-year-old girls, one surrounded by the warm lights of 2024, the other amid the ruins of war in 1940. Across time, they put up window decorations and promised each other, "Next year, we'll all be together again."

Su Nian'an grew older with each passing year, while Shen Suining was displaced again and again by the war. Until one year, no one answered from behind that window...

From then on, every New Year's Eve, Su Nian'an left a lamp lit, with a place set at the table.

At last, she understood: some people spend their whole lives hoping for one peaceful New Year.