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At this time one of my great-uncles Jin Fushan appeared on the scene. He was similar to my own grandfather in that he had opened a joint-stock company supplying food to foreigners. The company was known as Tong Mao, or Dombay & Son in English. It was a large and prosperous concern. He was always open and generous in spirit, once making a large donation for scholarships at St. Ignatius College in order to assist those children whose families had fallen on hard times. He was also truly God-fearing, belonging to Action Catholique and spending his vacations proselytising in the suburbs. He felt pity for us three orphans and told us: “Come and live with me.” So we went and he treated us as if we were his own children. We had a safe refuge for which I am grateful to this day. When, during the mass, I remember the dead, I always think of him and his two daughters who raised us. One was named Jin Yingxiu, a nun of the Presentation of Our Lady to the Temple, who had at one time been headmistress of Fangde Middle School; the other was called Jin Dexin—she never married and raised the two small children her deceased younger sister Jin Huixiu had left behind. When my sister was going through my father’s papers she found an IOU for 600 yuan signed by a cousin of my father’s. This man had opened a lumberyard in Yangjing village. My sister took the IOU and visited him to collect the money, but he chased her away. My sister told Jin Fushan, whereupon he asked his own lawyer to write a letter to chase the debt, with the result that the man immediately sent over 600 yuan. Jin Fushan saved the money for us so that we had a small amount of capital. Later on my sister was introduced to a job at the Cathay Mansion (now the Jinjiang Hotel) to manage a small library that provided books for the residents to read. It was an easy job with a monthly salary of 70 yuan, which was not bad at all. Thus she had yet more resources with which to look after us. My elder sister loved me very much. She always 6 Great-Uncle Jin Fushan 30 The Memoirs of Jin Luxian told me: “Big brother is good.” She said that when I had become a priest she would enter the convent and become a nun. In 1935 Jin Fushan went to Dachang to spread the Good News. After mass, when he had had breakfast and was walking to the car, a sudden gust of cold wind blew him to the ground. By the time they had taken him to hospital he was already dead and beyond resuscitation. He was only 53 years old. His saint’s name was Joseph. I remember him every time I say mass. Such a good man as he must surely have already entered heaven in the eternal presence of the Trinity. ...

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