88-year-old hospital cleaner adopts 38 abandoned babies over the years
An 88-year-old woman in China courageously stepped in to care for nearly 40 babies who were abandoned by their parents.
In a report by the South China Morning Post, retired hospital cleaner Tang Caiying adopted 38 abandoned infants between the 1980s and 1990s.
Tang decided to do the selfless act in 1982 when she was 46 years old. Despite already being the mother of five children, she decided to take up a baby girl who she found wrapped in a cotton coat and abandoned beside railway tracks on her way to work.
After bringing her home to feed and clean her up, Tang named the girl Fangfang, which means "fragrance" like blooming flowers.
Her family got bigger a few years later when Tang discovered yet another deserted baby girl at her hospital and named her Zhenzhen, which means "precious gift."
She continued to foster abandoned infants, eventually caring for a total of 38 children.
The news outlet detailed that most of the infants she took in were already knocking on death's door, with some thrown into trash bins and struggling to breathe while others were left outside the hospital in freezing winters.
Tang made the effort to have the rescued babies stay in an unused room at the hospital where she worked and would regularly monitor their health.
As caring for these kids required money from her own pocket, she would frequently get into arguments with her husband, who told her that they were barely scraping enough income to care for their five children.
But Tang was determined to save the lives of the children she had rescued, and this persistence eventually led to her husband growing to love the adopted children.
Because of this act, Tang was selected on Dec. 16 as a nominee to receive the National Moral Model award, considered the highest honor for moral excellence given to ordinary people in China.
Her daughter Aiping told The Paper, "For my mother, doing a good deed is not about a sense of morality. It is just what she feels she should do. It is an instinctive kindness."
