"Striding across the Yalu River, valiant, high-spirited ..." On the morning of September 14, in a hospital ward in Fuyang City, east China's Anhui Province, Meng Yunxia bent over her father Meng Zhaoqi, who was dying, singing gently his favorite song "March of the Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV)".
Meng Zhaoqi, aged 92, had ever participated in the War of Liberation before the founding of the People's Republic of China and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. Meng ever recalled that during the battle at Lake Changjin taking place in late 1950, the number of soldiers in Meng’s squad sharply reduced from 12 to 4 in one week with 8 laying down their lives.
A few days ago, Meng Zhaoqi was hospitalized again with bad physical condition.
Meng Zhaoqi had been in pretty good condition before the year of 2022. But since the beginning of this year, his physical condition has got from bad to worse. He himself had a premonition and drew up his funeral many times. At first, he asked his families to scatter his ashes into rivers instead of being buried in a grave. "My father said his funeral should be as simple as possible," said Meng Yunxia.
However, Meng Zhaoqi changed his mind after watching the movie "The Battle at Lake Changjin ". "Since then, he has frequently mentioned what had happened in the past, as if he had been back to the war years, seeing his fallen comrades-in-arms. After a lot of thought, he made a decision to donate his body (cornea)," said Meng Yunxia. She said that her father told them many times that, as a veteran and a member of the Communist Party of China, the Party and the country had given him so much that he would like to do one more thing for the country after death. Eventually, Meng Zhaoqi's family got to understand him and took the initiative to contact the Anhui Provincial Red Cross via the hospital.
At noon on September 12, while Meng Zhaoqi was still conscious, his son Meng Xianyong, on his behalf, signed a body (cornea) donation agreement.
