A Chinese mother’s 22-year heartbreak at a roadside shoe repair stand
Luo Xingzhen has spent more than two decades hoping that her missing children will find their way home
For more than two decades Luo Xingzhen has attended her roadside shoe repair stand in southwestern China in the hope that her two missing children will return.
The children, a girl and a boy, disappeared from the busy intersection in Duyun, Guizhou province, in 1996 and have not been seen since, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Luo said she suspected Hu Hualan, then aged seven, and Hu Huabai, five, were abducted, and she wanted to be at the stall in case they returned.
“If I go somewhere else and they come back someday, maybe we will miss each other,” Luo said.
She said her husband was also searching for their children and she would keep up her roadside vigil for another decade.
Up to 300,000 children went missing in China every year and just a small fraction found their way back home, Sohu.com reported in August.
Police launch searches after a child has been missing for two days, a delay that can complicate recovery efforts.
