One Sunday I went to visit my parents in the remote rural village where I spent my childhood. After a late lunch, I lay on the earthen bed ready to take a rest. I heard a dog barking outside and I sat up. When I opened the door I saw an old woman sitting on the ground in front of the gate to the house. I went over and reached out my hands to help her.

“No, I can stand up by myself,” she refused my help.

“I want to go to Wang Peiyi’s home,” murmured the woman, who seemed to be at a loss.

Her murmurings were barely comprehensible and I noticed she had almost no teeth.

After learning where she came from, I decided to walk her home. My mom, who was doing chores on the other side of the house, told me the woman was a neighbor who might have got lost on her way home. She went over to have a word with the woman.

My mother offered to walk her home but I insisted on doing it myself as my mother has a lame left leg.

With my help, the granny struggled to her feet.

Going back to her home turned out to be a huge challenge as the years had sapped her strength.

She would move her walking stick forward and then make four or five tentative steps.

Her feet were unimaginably small, 10 centimeters or so in length, which evidently was a result of the barbarous tradition of foot-binding which used to exist in China. She would use her left hand to support her left thigh.

Cobble stones were like road blocks to her.

“I’m 91 and it’s time for my eternal rest. I am useless,” she said as we inched forward. She mumbled all the way and her lower jaw trembled as she spoke.

I put my right hand on her left sleeve for fear that she might slip while she was dragging her feet.

The granny sat on the ground for a rest after walking for a few meters. “I am useless,” she repeatedly said.

We had to stop for a break every few minutes. Her left hand trembled uncontrollably as it held the top of the walking stick.

As we drew close to her home, another old woman saw us and pointed with her right hand to tell me where the granny lived.

I went to ask the granny’s family for help. Her son came and thanked me for my kindness.

Before I decided to go back to my parents’ home, I found the man had trouble carrying his mother on his back and I offered to help.

Supporting the granny on my back, I had to walk slowly and carefully. I bent my back and lowered my head as much as possible to prevent her from dropping since I felt her feeble hands could not hold my shoulders firmly.

I let her down very gently from my back after arriving in the yard of her home. The old granny managed to sit on a stool.

Her head and back shivered up and down in a violent way. She had difficulty breathing.

“Won’t you sit for a while?” asked the granny, turning her head, when she heard I was leaving.

I said goodbye to the old granny and her son and walked back to my parents’ home, which took me one or two minutes.