The photo of an elderly Chinese couple, married for nearly seventy years, holding hands while both are in intensive care has gone viral and touched millions of people around the world.
According to New China, the photo was taken and shared by Wang Yanfang, the head nurse of the intensive care unit at Yinzhou Hospital in the Zhejiang province in eastern China.
The husband, Feng Ming, who is 92 years old, was initially sent to the intensive care unit after suffering from heart failure.
Unfortunately, his condition worsened, and other organs began to fail before he developed a lung infection.
Feng eventually became unable to speak and was kept alive by a ventilator.
Realizing he was nearing the end of his life, his family chose to discontinue therapy and bring him home. However, he had one last wish before leaving the hospital: he wanted to see his wife, with whom he had been married for 66 years.
Zhang Ping, Feng’s 95-year-old wife, had also been admitted to the same hospital and was on a different floor, receiving treatment for a femur fracture.
Wang, the head nurse, told New China, «Visiting hours in the intensive care unit are from 3:00 PM to 3:30 PM, but Feng’s condition was too critical for him to wait until that time. So, he would have decided to make special arrangements for the elderly couple to meet for what could have been the very last time.»
At Wang’s request, Feng’s wife was transferred on a stretcher from the 14th floor to the intensive care unit on the 3rd floor, where Feng saw his wife one last time.
Wang recounted this heartwarming story: Feng’s wife took her husband’s hand and spoke to him in their local dialect, saying, «Don’t worry about me. Don’t worry about me. Be assured that I can take care of myself.»
Feng cried upon hearing her words and eventually passed away in the comfort of his home a few hours later. «We made an exception for the elderly couple to meet so that this touching moment could happen and be preserved, I am grateful for making the right choice,» said Wang.
This story is both devastating and comforting. But it is reassuring to know that Feng and Zhang stood by each other through thick and thin and remained in love with each other until the very end. That, indeed, is true love.