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Husband Stranded 50 Years in US, Inquired Online by Wife and Son in Beijing
When reporter took leave of old Lady Zhang' s house, her son Ma Xiaohang, an invalid suffering from a brain tumor, mumbled repeatedly: "I'm missing him. He has been in Beijing and has got back with his plane to see us...."
Ma Xiaohang has just celebrated his 51st birthday and what's in his head and prying on his heart over the past 51 years is nothing but his father for he has never seen his dad since he was born into this world". "Yes, already 51 years he has never seen his dad", said old Lady Zhang with tears in her eyes, recalling that it was merely a few months after getting married they parted.
"I married Ma Derong in Beiping in 1948, then moved to Shanghai in order to flee away from the persecution of Kuomintang (KMT) spies. At the end of 1948, the 8th brigade of KMT Air Force relieved garrison from Jiangwan, Shanghai to Xinzhu, Taiwan. Persecution then befell my husband for he refused to obey KMT orders to fight the civil war. After we said good-bye to each other I left Nanjing and we hadn't since hear from each other. I never thought that our parting at Nanjing should be over 51 years! In 1949, I gave birth to a baby boy. For I missed my husband too much, I named our son Ma Xiaohang, meaning to go on a tour looking for his father."
For 51 years Zhang has been asking about her husband, and from a year-on-year inquiry she came to know that Ma Derong had worked as a tutor in Harbin Aviation School after liberation and that he had left for the United States in the mid 50s. In 1979, Ma asked friends to inquire about her in Beijing, but she had happened to go with her diseased son Ma Xiaohang to see the doctor in a hospital. For one reason or another, they had failed to look up each other at long last. The following 20 years thereafter turned out to be a period of hard enduring inquiry about her husband in the US.
Lady Zhang seems to have been at the end of her inquiry about her husband away in the US since her son's health has already been in a most serious deteriorated condition. She wants to appeal through this medium to those of overseas Beijingese residing and studying abroad: Could you help old Lady Zhang get to know the whereabouts of her husband she has long missed so that Ma can meet and see his son he has never seen before?
Tuesday, Sina.com released this person-inquiry notice in China and North America websites simultaneously both in Chinese and English, as following:
Person to be inquired: Ma Derong, husband
Birthplace: Youdu County, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, China
Age: 73-74
Resume: Worked early as aeronavigator, Jiangwan Airport, Shanghai. Went abroad by mid 50s. His colleague Xu Rongguang, who met him in 1961, said that they had worked as tutors in Harbin Aviation School after liberation, demobilized in 1952, and after that, once worked in Baoji Machine Repair Station, Northwest Railway Bureau, Baoji City, under the Ministry of Railways, Shaanxi Province.
Inquirer: Zhang Rui, wife, aged 70, retiree from Beijing Scientific Instrument Factory. Ma Xiaohang, son, aged 51, retired worker from Beijing Machine Tool Plant.
Address: Workers' living quarters of Beijing Scientific Instrument Factory, Block 4, Anhua Road, Andingmen, Beijing
Post Code: 100011
Tel: (8610)64220004
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