Late mother´s day blessing: quake-flattened Beichuan wails on anniversary

Han Guangying spent more than six hours to arrive here from her home in a remote mountainous village, only to "say something to my son".

Fifty-six-year-old Han did not know Sunday was the mother's day. His son had worked in a barbershop in Beichuan. Han and his husband only knew of his son's death a week after the quake due to telecommunications failure.

Han had a tearful face every day after his 30-year-old son's death.

Finally came to the day when the old county was reopened. The family had to scrimp and save to pay the traffic bill of nearly 200 yuan (29.4 U.S. dollars).

"No matter how much money the travel cost, we will definitely come here because my son is here," Han said.

After her son died, the daughter-in-law remarried and took the six-month grandson together with her. Han and her husband still lived on their small cornfield in the deep mountain.

The village government gave them 5,000 yuan to strengthen their house. During the first three months after the quake, each of Han's family could gain 300 yuan in monthly subsidies.

Han's fellow villager Wang Tianfen cried again when she learned that Sunday was the mother's day. "I want to tell my daughter, 'we did not give you enough love. We are greatly indebted to you,'" said 36-year-old Wang.