Chinese Heart
Eunice Moe Brock of Liaocheng City, Shandong, China, died April 28, 2013. She was 95. Known as Mu Lin’ai, she was born in Hebei, the daughter of American missionaries to China. She recalled the tumultuous time of her youth in a 2008 interview with Chinese Radio International:
“There was scarcely [a day] when I didn’t hear gunfire. I saw dead bodies in the street. There was a massive famine for three years in which it was estimated that 8 million people died. … I saw things like a man selling a child because he didn’t have food for it. I saw a crowd of young teenagers crying very loudly. I asked why they were crying, and was told they were being sold into prostitution.”
When she was 13, Brock returned to the United States with her parents. As a young woman she tried to return to China, but her application was denied and her parents opposed the idea. At one point she and her boyfriend, Edwin, parted ways over his refusal to move to China, but the two eventually married and she put her dreams of returning to China on hold.
After her husband’s death in 1999, Brock, who was then 82, sold all her belongings and returned to China, settling in Liumiao Village, Liaocheng, Shandong Province, where she had lived as a child. She raised money to build a computer room and library for a local primary school and taught English there as a volunteer. Because of her professional background in nursing, in 2002 she was named to the honorary position of president of Liaocheng International Peace Hospital. Although she donated more than $56,000 to charities, she lived a simple life. Because of her contributions to China, she was named one of China’s philanthropy ambassadors in 2003 and as one of “10 People Who Touched Shandong” in 2006. At age 92 she received her Chinese permanent resident permit.
She is survived by four children.