China Mission: A Personal History from the Last Imperial Dynasty to the People's Republic

25. The Last Years

25 The Last Years FACING DEATH Unreal! Unreal are both creation And destruction, And man’s body Is illusion and a dream. It is the house Where for a space Sojourn his heart and mind; But seek not there For man’s real self— It does not dwell therein. —zu ming, sui dynasty (ad 581–618) Come back in sleep For in life Where thou art not We find none like thee. —halvor ronning, 1908 When Halvor arrived home from Peking, he was shocked to find Hannah seriously ill. Her beautiful countenance did not convey her condition. Her gentle features without sharpness or creases were still given more to expressing joy, love, and tenderness. Only her eyes betrayed her pain. She harbored a lingering fear of death that she had tried to conceal from Halvor. But it was revealed in a letter to her mother: My precious Mamma—Oh it was nice to hear from you. I do not write as often as I should and feel badly about it—but if I don’t feel well enough to the last years
205 write at night I neglect it. I seem to get weaker every day, but Dr. Himle cannot find the mysterious cause of this. I cannot climb the stairs once as my heart throbs and flutters. It is from loss of blood since I gave birth—so at least it is not the heart. But anyway an anxious feeling takes hold of me once in a while as if death were near— and it may be—but I must leave that to God. Life is precious to me, I have eight pairs of hands to hold me to my life, my husband and seven children, and then there is my work—yet unfinished—and my dear friends. Mother of mine—beloved mamma—if we don’t meet again in this world we shall meet in Heaven. Have no fear. The letter ended with a revealing apology: Excuse the pencil but I cannot bear the noise of the pen scratching on paper. The “mysterious cause” was later found to be Asian sprue, a painful and weakening illness resulting from a vitamin B and iron deficiency that slowly saps the white corpuscles. It struck many foreign women in China, but at that time, like scurvy, the cause was unknown and there was no cure. Hannah may have recovered had it not been for the exhaustion and dehydration caused by the famine. Dr. Himle recommended a trip to the mountains, or better still to leave China altogether. This, however, seemed to be unacceptable to Hannah. Early in January 1907, Halvor decided to take Hannah by boat upriver to Tze Ho and then up the mountain, by sedan chair, to the inspiring scenery and invigorating air of Ming Mang. One of the new missionaries, Miss Anna Lee, went along as nurse. Halvor worked hard to make the boat comfortable. He installed a stove and a soft litter chair so Hannah could be moved on deck into the sunshine. They sailed up the Han River for several days, and each day Hannah grew stronger. Halvor was filled with hope when they anchored offshore at Tze Ho, but while they were preparing to continue up the mountain in sedan chairs, a messenger arrived from Fancheng with terrible news. Chester had come down with diphtheria. Hannah wanted to return immediately, but Halvor insisted they continue. In another one of those strange coincidences that changed the history of our family, however, the decision was suddenly taken out of their hands. If the storm had not come, Chester would have almost certainly died, and I would not be recording these events. The sky blackened over the mountains, rain came in torrents, and the sedan-chair bearers refused to carry them up the slippery mountain path. There were no inns for shelter. They were forced to take a tender back to the boat. While Halvor was maneuvering their boat into a sheltered place, they hit a rock, the icy water came pouring in, and the boat began to sink. Fortunately the water was only up to Halvor’s chest, so he was able to carry Hannah ashore and wade back for Anna Lee. The bearers carried the shivering women to a shelter, 206
home leave and return where they spent the night. Halvor built a fire, and the next morning he rented a boat...