Twenty-four years ago, Mr. And Mrs. Fu Haihe’s 7-year-old daughter Yanhong went missing. Since then, the couple has traveled over 100,000 km and spent over 80,000 yuan looking for her. Although they have yet to find Yanhong, they have helped 12 other children reunite with their families.
According to Dahe News, on the morning of October 7, 1982, Fu Yanhong from Hebi City, Henan Province left home in a pair of new yellow pants and a floral print blouse, which her mother had just sewn for her. Just before she left, she told her father that she would like to eat a persimmon. While she was gone, Fu Haihe went to the market and bought some persimmons, and then he waited for his daughter to come home for lunch.
Who knew that the wait would last 24 years? On her way home, Fu Yanhong mysteriously disappeared. To give himself hope, Fu Haihe bought a bag of artificial persimmons; whenever he misses his daughter, he looks at the brightly-colored fruit.
Fu Haihe is 70 now, and whenever he talks about his daughter, tears roll down his face. “If my daughter is still alive, she will be 31 this year.” This bag of persimmons not only contains memories but also hope, and motivation to keep searching.
Mr. And Mrs. Fu Haihe firmly believed they would find their daughter. They traveled far and wide to look for her. To keep expenses low, they had a pair of bicycles made into a tandem bike.
In the last 20-plus years, they’ve traveled to many places. From Hebei to Shanxi, from Shandong to Anhui, everywhere they went, they asked about adopted children in the area.
They can’t even recall how many pairs of shoes they’ve worn out. But the 42 used bicycles in their yard are a silent testament to their efforts.
Helping 12 Children Return Home
One day in 1983, a person told the Fu’s that a family in Hebi City, Qi County had acquired a child from an unknown source. Upon hearing this, Fu immediately went to Qi County. It turned out that the child was a 3-year-old boy. When Fu returned home, he heard that a family, living in the suburbs of Hebi and surnamed Li, had lost their boy. The description of the boy was very close to the child he had just seen. The Fu’s hurried to the Li family and told them about the boy in Hebi. Eventually the Li family was able to reunite with their child.
On another occasion, they heard that in Jun County a family had bought a child. They investigated and found that the child was a boy from Beijing. They quickly wrote a letter to the Beijing Public Security Ministry. The police rescued the child and brought him back to his family.
Altogether, the Fu’s found or obtained information about 12 lost children, although their daughter was not one of them.
It’s been 24 years since their daughter went missing. Now, the elderly couple carry the only picture they have of Yanhong, taken when she was 6 years old. Mrs. Fu said, “I am sure my daughter is married now. I wish I could see her again, pat her head, and hear her call me ’mom.'”
