Page 187 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 187
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
strong and not very frequent on Sunday, and all day Monday. The big charcoal stove was on the
landing outside our bedroom doors and I sat there all day knitting a shawl.
Dr. Xiao came in and out, but even when I felt the pain was pretty bad, he still said they were not
strong enough! I seemed to go on in a haze of pain, getting more and more exhausted, but still no
baby. Finally Dr. Xiao said he must try and help me with instruments, so he got Miss Haslam to give
me an anaesthetic, a whiff of chloroform, while Percy’s parents were doing all they could to help. I
remember coming out of the chloroform and thinking, “Oh dear, isn’t the baby born yet?” I could hear
Percy’s dad praying and Dr.Xiao saying again, as he seemed to be saying for hours and hours, “Shi jin
(use your strength)”. I didn’t have any strength! Everybody seemed to be pushing on my tummy and
then the final struggle and the pain release and dear old Grandad saying, “Praise the Lord”, and I
knew that it was over at last. Our beautiful eight pound baby boy was none the worse for the
difficulties he had had to go through to get into the world, except for a slightly crumpled ear where the
Dr. had used his instruments. We knew then that had we not come to Hanzhong and had Dr. Xiao to
help me, quite possibly neither Raymond nor I might have survived. Miss Begbie had no instruments
and would certainly not have had the strength to do all that Dr. Xiao did, so though unplanned by us,
God was in that move up to Hanzhong.
I was too ill for the next few days to be able to do much except feed my baby when necessary, but
neither he nor I could have had better or more loving care, as Grannie and Grandad and Dr. Xiao
looked after us and watched every movement lest anything should go wrong. Percy’s dad got Fred to
go to the Post Office to try and get a message through by phone (the only one in Hanzhong) to
Xixiang to tell Percy his son was born. He and Rob lost no time in getting on their bikes to cycle back
to Hanzhong. It was snowing and bitterly cold, but they pushed on determined to get through in the
day if they could. They reached Hanzhong city gate well after dark. The gate was locked and bolted,
but they called the soldiers on guard and asked to be let in. The soldiers were pretty suspicious at
first, but when they said they had come from Xixiang (90 miles) in the day, they were openly
unbelieving. However they were finally convinced and let them in. We were all amazed to see them
and had certainly not expected them to get through in a day. Percy managed to make himself sick by
drinking too much on an empty stomach, but he was overjoyed to be with us again and to see his
lovely little son, safe and sound after all we had been through. He slept in Doug’s room that night but
was restless and unsettled and couldn’t sleep. At some stage he murmured, “Oh Lord, please help me
get some sleep.” Next morning Doug said, “Gee Brer, you must be a holy guy! You even pray in your
sleep!”
Those weeks in Hanzhong were happy ones with our room the centre of the house and the gathering
place for the family. Our baby, whom we named Arthur Raymond, to be called Raymond, was a joy to
us all and every detail of his life and development was watched and commented on. Even ‘Uncle
Doug’ who was a big six foot, sixteen year old schoolboy, loved to come and spend time playing with
his first nephew. He would lie flat on his back on the floor holding Raymond up in the air and talking
to him. The day we cut his finger nails for the first time was very exciting, and then there was the daily
ritual of training him to use his potty, all this undertaken by Grannie while I was still in bed. Even the
servants got excited when Grannie went downstairs with the potty after a ‘successful’ morning and
showed them that even a week old baby could be trained!
According to Chinese custom a woman did not go out of her own home until her baby was a month old
(Man yue), so I made no attempt to return to Xixiang till after Chinese New Year which was early
February that year. Apart from the fact that it was custom, I was still not well enough, and even when
Raymond was three weeks old, I was only just beginning to crawl round and take up the duties of life
again. Percy felt he should get back to Xixiang as soon as I was well enough to be left. Then he got a
187
Amy Moore
strong and not very frequent on Sunday, and all day Monday. The big charcoal stove was on the
landing outside our bedroom doors and I sat there all day knitting a shawl.
Dr. Xiao came in and out, but even when I felt the pain was pretty bad, he still said they were not
strong enough! I seemed to go on in a haze of pain, getting more and more exhausted, but still no
baby. Finally Dr. Xiao said he must try and help me with instruments, so he got Miss Haslam to give
me an anaesthetic, a whiff of chloroform, while Percy’s parents were doing all they could to help. I
remember coming out of the chloroform and thinking, “Oh dear, isn’t the baby born yet?” I could hear
Percy’s dad praying and Dr.Xiao saying again, as he seemed to be saying for hours and hours, “Shi jin
(use your strength)”. I didn’t have any strength! Everybody seemed to be pushing on my tummy and
then the final struggle and the pain release and dear old Grandad saying, “Praise the Lord”, and I
knew that it was over at last. Our beautiful eight pound baby boy was none the worse for the
difficulties he had had to go through to get into the world, except for a slightly crumpled ear where the
Dr. had used his instruments. We knew then that had we not come to Hanzhong and had Dr. Xiao to
help me, quite possibly neither Raymond nor I might have survived. Miss Begbie had no instruments
and would certainly not have had the strength to do all that Dr. Xiao did, so though unplanned by us,
God was in that move up to Hanzhong.
I was too ill for the next few days to be able to do much except feed my baby when necessary, but
neither he nor I could have had better or more loving care, as Grannie and Grandad and Dr. Xiao
looked after us and watched every movement lest anything should go wrong. Percy’s dad got Fred to
go to the Post Office to try and get a message through by phone (the only one in Hanzhong) to
Xixiang to tell Percy his son was born. He and Rob lost no time in getting on their bikes to cycle back
to Hanzhong. It was snowing and bitterly cold, but they pushed on determined to get through in the
day if they could. They reached Hanzhong city gate well after dark. The gate was locked and bolted,
but they called the soldiers on guard and asked to be let in. The soldiers were pretty suspicious at
first, but when they said they had come from Xixiang (90 miles) in the day, they were openly
unbelieving. However they were finally convinced and let them in. We were all amazed to see them
and had certainly not expected them to get through in a day. Percy managed to make himself sick by
drinking too much on an empty stomach, but he was overjoyed to be with us again and to see his
lovely little son, safe and sound after all we had been through. He slept in Doug’s room that night but
was restless and unsettled and couldn’t sleep. At some stage he murmured, “Oh Lord, please help me
get some sleep.” Next morning Doug said, “Gee Brer, you must be a holy guy! You even pray in your
sleep!”
Those weeks in Hanzhong were happy ones with our room the centre of the house and the gathering
place for the family. Our baby, whom we named Arthur Raymond, to be called Raymond, was a joy to
us all and every detail of his life and development was watched and commented on. Even ‘Uncle
Doug’ who was a big six foot, sixteen year old schoolboy, loved to come and spend time playing with
his first nephew. He would lie flat on his back on the floor holding Raymond up in the air and talking
to him. The day we cut his finger nails for the first time was very exciting, and then there was the daily
ritual of training him to use his potty, all this undertaken by Grannie while I was still in bed. Even the
servants got excited when Grannie went downstairs with the potty after a ‘successful’ morning and
showed them that even a week old baby could be trained!
According to Chinese custom a woman did not go out of her own home until her baby was a month old
(Man yue), so I made no attempt to return to Xixiang till after Chinese New Year which was early
February that year. Apart from the fact that it was custom, I was still not well enough, and even when
Raymond was three weeks old, I was only just beginning to crawl round and take up the duties of life
again. Percy felt he should get back to Xixiang as soon as I was well enough to be left. Then he got a
187
