Although left paralyzed, Yang Yufang and his wife Gao Zhihong survived the Tangshan earthquake. WANG ZHUANGFEI/CHINA DAILY
"My mother shook me awake when the quake occurred. My father ran toward the door, and I saw a concrete beam fall from the roof and hit him. I got up and ran to him, but I was hit by another falling beam. I was wedged between two of the beams, unable to move. I saw my father die," she recalled, her voice choked with emotion.
"It was so dark. I heard my brothers shouting my name, but I couldn't move and I was too weak and in too much pain to respond."
Gao was buried under the debris of the family home for about 10 hours until one of her brothers managed to free her.
Shortly after the quake, Gao Zhihong was transferred to Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, and then Cangzhou in Hebei for treatment on her legs. She did not return to Tangshan until 1980.
Gao's boyfriend broke off their relationship when he learned she would never walk again. "I was desperate, I cried myself to sleep every night for several years," she said.
At the time, she was unaware that her future husband was in the same position. Yang Yufang, then 26, was also paralyzed in the quake, and was sent to larger cities for medical treatment. He found it hard to accept that his life had changed for good.
"When I returned to Tangshan, I put some clothes over my head, so I couldn't see the destruction in the city. Also, I was afraid to be seen; I was so ashamed of being crippled," said Yang, whose father and brother died in the quake.
Although it took a long time, he was eventually able to accept the reality of the situation. "What happened had happened. I couldn't rewrite history. There were only two paths in front of me－to live or to die. I chose to live," he said.
"There was no use being angry or resentful. Once I had chosen to live, I had to face reality, to accept it and make the best of it."
