When darkness falls, Liu Xiubi brings out simple equipment from her makeshift room to roast mutton shish kebab, a popular snack food, in Guanzhuang Township, Qingchuan County, in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
 |
|
Local residents mourn at the cemetery of quake victims in Yingxiu of Wenchuan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, June 12, 2008. One month after the May 12 earthquake, social order has been restored in the epicenter town of Yingxiu, with the process of resettlement and reconstruction going smoothly. [File Photo]
|
Not far away is the township middle school. Students are having night classes there. When the bell rings, students will come out and surround her snack booth.
"Only when I'm with the children, I can forget all about that," said Liu.
Her "all about that" refers to losing her 15-year-old daughter in the magnitude 8.0 earthquake on May 12. The disaster leveled her Shiba Township home.
"She would be in grade three in middle school if she did not die. She always ranked top in almost all exams and behaved well. I have a second daughter, but I often have to worry about her study."
Liu looks tired. Except for that, she acts the same as other common mothers -- working hard to make a living and chatting about her child's studies.
"Though Liu acts normal, she is suffering great pain under the cover," said Liang Shenglin, an expert with Zhejiang Provincial Psychological Help Team to Sichuan. He talked with the woman for a while to provide psychological help.
"She keeps on replaying the disastrous earthquake scenes in her mind. When a car drove by, she might take it as an earthquake."
Survivors are haunted by insomnia, depression, anxiety, horror and pain.
"Victims report increasing domestic conflict in families after the quake. They lack trust on things around them," said Wang Yiqiang, head of Zhejiang Psychological Help Team to Sichuan.