Pieces of the past

Lisa Findley talks with villagers at Jietou about the plane parts dismantled from her father's P-38 in 1945.

William Findley died in 1989 in his mid-70s, regretting he did not get a chance to return to Jietou. Now his daughter is making his wish come true many times over.

"I was able to meet with so many wonderful people there," Lisa Findley said during a visit in October 2002. "It was those wonderful people who guided my father out of the mountains to return to his unit, when he was feeling most helpless."

This became the keynote of her speech whenever she comes to "the corner of the other world" where her father had stayed for two days - 48 hours which changed his outlook on life.

"He had thought himself far away from war and death while flying a reconnaissance aircraft so high up in the sky," Findley says.

To the helpless and desperate young man, the villagers' hospitality and sympathy made him realize how insignificant and meaningless technology and training were when he was faced with danger.

He knew then that the most important things in life were human benevolence and reverence for each another, and that it went beyond the differences in language, culture, belief, religion and politics.

"Without the goodwill, we will always feel helpless and our life will be a mess," Findley quotes her father's words in a speech to students at a primary school in Jietou, explaining why Jietou was so important for her father, who later became a teacher and a missionary after the war.

For the Findleys, Jietou had become a second home, especially for Lisa, who is now writing a book dedicated to her father.

That is the reason she returns often, staying at the same motel. The folks recognize her and greet her warmly as if she were a part of the local neighborhood.

[Photo/China Daily]