Knowing victims of the coronavirus

Yan Xiaowen's social media post.

Five years ago, a parishioner in Wuhan, central China, introduced me to Yan Xiaowen. At that time, Yan Xiaowen lived in one of the simplest homes I had ever visited. The single room was a mere five metres long and four metres wide. It had one window and no heating. Cooking was done on a gas ring at one side of the room. Decoration was at a minimum. A small toilet at the end of a concrete corridor was shared with several other people who lived in similar rooms.

Within this small home, Yan Xiaowen cared in a happy way for his two sons. Yan Cheng was born with cerebral palsy without ever having the ability to talk or use his limbs. Yan Hongwei has autism. Their mother died ten years ago. In this most humble setting, Yan Xiaowen has lived the dedicated life of a father in a way that can hardly be expressed by words on a page. Faced with the challenges of poverty as he cared for his two children, he would never have expected that one day Yan Cheng's name would be circulating on social media in China as well as featuring in news reports overseas. Unfortunately, the reason was linked with the coronavirus outbreak and the struggles of the country to cope with its consequences.

Having returned to their original town of Huajiahe to celebrate the lunar New Year, it came as a complete surprise when Yan Xiaowen was quarantined due to showing symptoms of the coronavirus. Yan Hongwei was with him when he went to the clinic and so had to join him in quarantine. This meant that Yan Cheng was now on his own and unable to do anything for himself. Local authorities were notified of his predicament and the need to provide support. Yet Yan Cheng died at home alone. Consequently, the mayor and party secretary of Huajiahe were removed from their jobs.

On his social media account, Yan Xiaowen shared a poignant expression of hope addressed to his son as he wrote: "My son, on this earth your pain had no limits, but in heaven there is no hunger or thirst, there is no cold, there is no suffering, there is no pain, there is only love."

For a family that received baptism just a few years ago, these are insights worthy of an honoured place in the life of the Church.

These are the depths of experience within just one family tossed about on the waves of uncertainty by the coronavirus in central China. At the peak of the pandemic, the streets of Wuhan and surrounding cities were eerily quiet - the havoc wrought within the hearts of many families striking completely unannounced.

We continue to pray for those who have died, for those who have contracted the virus and their families, and for the many people who are trying to resolve this increasingly complex pandemic. We pray especially for Yan Cheng, who is now surely among the saints in heaven, and for his grieving father and brother. They have brought us so much to enrich the life of the Church.

Columban Fr Dan Troy lives and works in China.