Book Title: One of the Lucky Ones
Author: Lucy Ching
Publisher: Chinese Baptist Press
Number of Pages: 293
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Content:
This is a dramatized autobiography of Superwoman, Lucy Ching Man-Fai. It tells about how she overcomes all the difficulties and becomes a successful person.
The story started when Lucy was 6-month old. At that time, her parents brought her back to their hometown visiting their family. Lucy was too young and weak so that she immediately got ill after the arrival. Her parents brought her to a doctor, and that doctor gave her some herbs. After applying the herbs, her optic nerve was totally damaged and she could never see since then.
Lucy was born in the 30's. At that time the society was patriarchy ~ a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to the social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. Additionally, there was a serious discrimination problem. The majority of people who are blind would be sold as a songstress for making a living.
Fortunately, Lucy got a nice family with a helpful sister and brother, and kind parents. She was the third children of her parents. They loved Lucy very much and a maid Ah Wor was hired for looking after Lucy. Ah Wor treated Lucy as her own daughter and gave her the best caring. She played an important role in Lucy' life.
Time flied fast and Lucy grew into a teenager. Ar Wor started bringing her out to street for walking. Sometimes, Lucy heard some teasing from others. She felt hurt at first but after Ah Wor 's comforting words, she started to understand that no matter what others think,the most important thing is how you think about yourself.
One day, when Lucy passed through a school. She heard a teacher teaching the students. She started to think of going to school. As mentioned before, Lucy was born in a patriarchy society. Sending girls to school to study was very rare and difficult. Not to mention a blind girl. However with Lucy' efforts, she finally grabbed a chance to study. She learned English Braille and then Cantonese Braille all by herself. She did very well at school and even got the first place in class.
When everything was going well, a war came unwittingly. It was the Chinese Civil War. The Ching family moved to Hong Kong .They lost all the things, the house, the money and the social status. Her father could not find a job. All their maids had left Ching' family except Ah Wor. She stayed and looked after Lucy without getting a salary. On the other hand, Lucy did not give up studying. She was taken by a famous school~Diocesan Girls' School. As her father got no money to pay for the school fee, she felt worried. Luckily, she got help form Ah Wor. Ah Wor dedicated all her saving to helping Lucy finish her study.
After Lucy graduated from the secondary school, she was given a scholarship from the John Milton Society and ha a chance to study in the US. This was the first time for her to leave Ah Wor and live alone. At first it was very hard to Lucy yet with the help of God, she managed to be independent and she was able to finish all the courses offered by the Blind Training School. After graduation, she went back to Hong Kong, being the first blind social worker in the Social Welfare Department.
My thoughts:
This is really a very touching story. Also, it is encouraging. It brings a message, that is “When there's a will, there's a way!” No matter how difficult it is , you must walk your way with your will. Just like Lucy, although she is blind, she has made her dreams come true.
Undoubtedly, Lucy is a great person to learn from. Although she is blind, she has never given up. She has a dream – that is to study at school. With her hard work, she finally manages to get good academic results. Though she meets so many difficulties in her life, she has never blamed God or anyone. Instead she always prays and believes that she will succeed one day with God's help.
Apart from Lucy, the one I admire most is Ah Wor. I was amazed by her love to Lucy. Although Lucy is not her own daughter, Ah Wor treats her extremely well. She takes good care of her. She even gives out all her saving just to make it possible for Lucy to study.
While Lucy feels confused and sad, she comforts Lucy. There are a few dialogues that impress me. One of them is 'You can see too, but in a different way. You see with your hands.' I totally agree with Ah Wor. Despite Lucy's physical blindness, she could see/observe more things than others. Ah Wor is the one who makes Lucy confident, active and successful.
There are two incidents which touch me a lot too. Firstly, it was when Lucy met another blind girl, Tse Tse. They built a close friendship. Tse Tse was not as lucky as Lucy. She got a bad family who dumped her and she became a street slave. Lucy gave her food and clothes and chatted with her. One day Tse Tse needed to move to another place with her slave mistress. Before they parted, Tse Tse told Lucy: Try to learn as much as you can so that perhaps later you can teach all of us blind people to read with our hand and then we needn't be blind slaves in the street and be called 'mang miu'. Lucy promised her that she would try. This sentence shows that Lucy is the HOPE of the blind people. This is so encouraging. The other one was when Lucy was at the airport to say good bye to Ah Wor. They said to each other ‘Ah Wor’ ‘Miss Three’, repeated that for three times. Although the book didn't mention that they cried, I could still feel their reluctance to part and the deep love between them.
I also watched the movie version of ‘One of the lucky ones’, which is also very touching. If you need a lift in your life, read Lucy's story.