Lost her mother at a young age and lost her husband at a middle age
Zhang Guimei was born on June 15, 1957 in a Manchu farmer family in Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province. At that time, her mother was 48 years old. She was ranked 12 and the youngest in the family. For various reasons, only 6 children survived. In childhood, Zhang Guimei's mother died prematurely due to illness.
Zhang Guimei, who lost her maternal love, grew up with the help of her sister. In October 1974, 17-year-old Zhang Guimei followed her sister who loved her the most to participate in the "third-line construction" to Zhongdian County (now Shangri-La City) in Yunnan Province. In December of the following year, Zhang Guimei started working locally and became a staff member of the Zhongdian County Forestry Bureau.
Later, she was admitted to Lijiang Education College (now Lijiang Normal College ). After graduation, Zhang Guimei worked as a front-line administration in the forestry system and met her husband Li Wannian. Zhang Guimei followed her husband to teach at the Forestry Children's School (now Xizhou No. 1 Middle School) in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, and her husband became the principal.
Zhang Guimei received great help from her husband, both at work and in life. Unfortunately, happy times are always short. In 1993, Zhang Guimei's husband was diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer. In order to treat her husband, Zhang Guimei used up all the money in the family. She was not afraid of spending money. It was Zhang Guimei's biggest wish to cure her husband, but Zhang Guimei's husband was still not spared. In August 1996, her husband passed away.
Although the hemp rope is broken in detail, there is still true love in the world
The dual effects of the pain of the death of her husband and the hard work of work, Zhang Guimei was diagnosed with uterine fibroids in the same year, and the tumor was as big as a 5-month fetus. At that time, Zhang Guimei wanted to give up and planned to leave the last time of her life to her favorite child, but her colleagues said no, the villagers said no, and the children said no.
After learning about Zhang Guimei's illness, everyone donated love. The donors ranged from 50 cents to 10 yuan in paper money. Everyone is telling you with their actions: "We can't live without you." A villager donated all his car fare to Guimei. He walked 6 hours before he got home. The villagers said, I can walk this way countless times, and I can earn money again, but where can I find such a good teacher?
Looking at the love that everyone put together, Zhang Guimei cried, tears flowing down her face. She knew that there is affection in her heart and love in the world. I want to live and repay everyone with my actions.
Special love for you
Zhang Guimei, who had just recovered from a serious illness, did not do much care and quickly invested her salary. She decided to use her life to repay her hometown. In 2001, Huaping County Children's Home, which adopted orphans, was established, and the donor designated Zhang Guimei as the dean. Zhang Guimei said to the children in the yard: "This is not an orphanage, but your home, with brothers and sisters and mothers who love you."
For this family, Zhang Guimei "begged" everywhere, but raising money is not easy. Many times donations are conditional. Some entrepreneurs require their children to wear tattered clothes to accept donations, but Zhang Guimei refused them all. Zhang Guimei said: "No matter how hard or tired the mother is, she will not let her children hurt their self-esteem."
In 2002, Zhang Guimei began to build a free girls' high school. Her original intention was to "educate a girl well and change the fate of three generations" and solve the vicious cycle of "low-quality mothers and raise low-quality children". She said: "A girl will become a wife and mother. Educating a girl well is to change the fate of three generations. If this happens, everything I do is worth it."
For this dream, Zhang Guimei went everywhere to raise money, and because of her persistence and adherence to the bottom line, she was scolded, spitted, and even bitten by dogs. In the whole five years, she only raised 10,000 yuan, but her hard work is fulfilled. On January 15, 2007, Xinhua News Agency published an article ""I Have a Dream" - Interview with Zhang Guimei, a teacher at the National Middle School in Huaping County, Lijiang City, Yunnan Province". After the article was published, it attracted widespread attention from the society. With the efforts of all parties, Huaping Women's High School was officially established in 2008.
In 2011, the school students took the college entrance examination, and 69 undergraduate students were online, with a comprehensive online rate of 100%. The first-tier university online rate increased from 4.26% in 2011 to 40.67% in 2019, ranking first in the city. Children use their actions to repay their mothers. So far, Zhang Guimei has trained more than 1,600 female college students.
Faced with these achievements, Zhang Guimei only said: " Huaping gave me a second life, I want to do something for Huaping."
