Light in Cracks

"Mom, I... I may not be able to hold on anymore." On the phone late at night, her daughter's weak voice was like a knife piercing Lin Shuhua's heart. The 55-year-old retired teacher rushed to the city where her daughter lived overnight. What she saw when she opened the door made her heart twist: the once-glorious only daughter Su Xiao huddled in a dark corner, with bleeding bandages wrapped around her wrists, and empty boxes of antidepressants scattered around the room. The failed marriage three years ago not only took away Su Xiao's love, but also destroyed her self-confidence. Her ex-husband's betrayal and workplace PUA caused her to suffer from severe anxiety and depression, and Lin Shuhua's advice to "be patient and it will be over" became the straw that broke the camel's back. Now the stubborn mother is determined to learn how to be a mother again. She quit her job and moved into her daughter's small apartment. From learning to differentiate between types of antidepressant drugs, to accompanying my daughter in exposure therapy; from silently picking up the dishes that my daughter broke when she had an emotional breakdown, to hugging my trembling daughter at three in the morning. When she discovered clues about her ex-husband's transfer of property, the mother, who had never understood the law, began to teach herself "Marriage Law" and took her daughter on the road to safeguarding her rights. This is not a simple healing story, but a mother's journey of spending the rest of her life catching up on the lesson of "how to love." When Su Xiao was finally able to smile in the sunshine, Lin Shuhua understood that the path that illuminated her daughter also illuminated the shadow that she had never noticed.