A Brave Girl
Ngai Wong, Group 3: Fiction, TMCC Holm Glad College Secondary School
n this issue of Brave Magazine, I wish to introduce to you an exceptional girl I met just yesterday called
Amy Lai. Amy is disabled due to a tragic event while still in her teens. She was seriously injured after her
father, who was drunk at the time, beat her so severely that she ended up in hospital for several months.
She developed a serious infection from her injuries and the doctors were unable to save her right arm which was
amputated.
I
Subsequently, Amy's father committed suicide, a thought not far from Amy's mind either, until she was
saved by the words of a kind and noble Christian. However her own sorrows are not something Amy dwells on
during the interview I gave her, as she is now a strong girl who has confronted her sorrows bravely and with the
support of her Christian community.
While she was telling me of her sorrowful experience, I associated her spirit with that of the Great Wall
of China. Both of them are indestructible as Amy didn't give up her life, just like The Great Wall has withstood
battles in China, both from attack by others and by nature, and remained standing stoically in China for about
2,000
years. I invited Amy to have an interview about her hard experiences hoping this interview would
encourage other disabled people to live bravely and happily from there on.
When I first contacted Amy, she suggested we meet in a hospital where she was scheduled to visit
disabled children. While we were there, Amy's attention was mainly on these children who played some games
like 'pass the ball' and performed magic tricks. The children were very excited with the games, so much so, they
were sorry when it was time to say goodbye.
I was very interested in why Amy would go to the hospital to visit and play with the children. Amy told
me that the children were very sorrowful like her, so she wanted to bring some joy in their lives, and in so doing
she has been rewarded with a sense of purpose and happiness in return. It was supposed to be one visit, but
became a regular event with a visit each month to the hospital.
Last month, she went to the Great Wall of China to help an international charity by taking part in a
sponsored charitable walk. This charity helps disabled people to learn how to become more mobile and able to
perform tasks that interest them.
The walk was very difficult for her as despite just having one hand, there was also her lack of fitness
due to the many months she had spent in hospital recovering. Nevertheless she was able to complete the route of
the charitable walk successfully.
She said that despite her difficulties, she was very satisfied to be helping other people to build their
dreams, and she could make friends with others from different countries. This made me think of how the
ancients strived to build The Great Wall to defend China against warring tribes. There were the inevitable
accidents when many ancients would lose their lives. And the wall became damaged through warfare and the