Once during a particularly cold winter, I got a very severe fever that made me cough constantly. I couldn’t take in any food. No type of medicine seemed to work.

My mother had several sleepless nights because she was so worried about me. As a last resort, she consulted a traditional Chinese medicine doctor.

Because the ingredients of the traditional Chinese medicine he prescribed were rare, she had to do a lot of running around to find them, sometimes through heavy snow. After she found all the herbs, she had to wash, cut and mash them before boiling them.

Boiling the herbs was arduous and complex. First she boiled a pot of porridge, then put the herbs into the porridge. After that, she had to constantly stir the porridge to prevent it from splashing. My mother’s face was covered because she had to stay hunched over the stove.

She looked tired, but patiently fed me the porridge one spoonful after another.

The next day, I felt much better. I believed my mother’s love was the magic ingredient.