Remarkable and Tragic

My Aunt Patricia and Uncle Jack just returned from a couple of weeks in China. They traveled with a group from their church and visited several of the orphanages their church sponsors.

I talked with my aunt this afternoon and she told me the most remarkable and sad story.

On their last day in China, shortly before they were to go to the airport, they were walking near a train track. I don't know what city they were in. They noticed a toddler girl standing right by the train tracks. My aunt said the little girl's feet were nearly touching the tracks. Fifty people walked by and didn't stop to help her. So my aunt and uncle, and another woman in their group approached this little girl and picked her up. My aunt thinks she was between 15 and 18 months old. She was beautifully dressed and was clutching something in her hand that she wouldn't give up when my aunt tried to take it from her.

My aunt and uncle and the other woman took the little girl to security. Their Chinese guide told them she would be taken to a police station and her parents would be sought, but it is unlikely that they would be found. Eventually, she would be taken to an orphanage.

Why did so many people walk by and not notice this little girl all by herself? My aunt and uncle were told it's because if any of the Chinese had done so, they might have been expected to keep her.

Why was she dressed so well if she was being abandoned? My aunt said she was told that oftentimes the mother-in-law will take the child while the mother is away and leave her like that.

I'm just struck by the irony of the whole situation. Here they were visiting orphans, who at some point had been abandoned by their families, and then they witness an abandonment scene like that. I don't know what more to say.