“Oh, Ta Hun, I don’t know what to do. I can’t go home. Father will be so angry when he sees what I have done”.

The child had been born that morning, she was only hours old and already noisy, hungry and demanding. They sat and talked. Mei couldn’t stay out for much longer. The rain was coming, large drops were already apparent on the leaves in his pumpkin patch. Ta Hun offered to mind the baby while Mei went to talk to her mother. He had a shed in his pumpkin patch. It was dry and warm and he remembered the new wheelbarrow he had won for growing the biggest pumpkin in the village. He could prop it up and make a bed for the tiny infant.

Mei had known she was pregnant but just hadn’t known how to tell her parents. They would ask who fathered the child and she just could not tell them, so she kept her secret and now she could keep it no longer. She promised Ta Hun she would only be away for a short time and she would come back for the baby when she had spoken to her mother.

Little Li Li never made it to the wheelbarrow, he couldn’t put her down. He loved the mother and now he loved her child. Mei returned and as she and the baby left his heart grew numb and he knew his purpose in life was to be with them.

As the months passed he visited Mei and Li Li and a fondness developed between them all. They felt like a family, Ta Hun, Mei and little Li Li. Slowly Mei came to look forward to his visits. Their love grew as Li Li did and Mei’s father gave permission for them to marry. They married on October 1st 1949, the day that China became the new China, the People’s Republic of China.

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So this year is a special year for them, their diamond anniversary and the celebration of 60 years of the Chinese republic. There will be fireworks. There will be massive celebrations all over China. And Ta Hun will be able to show Li Fu his pumpkin. They will wheel it together in the old wheelbarrow to the centre of town where he is hoping that once again he will take out the prize for the largest pumpkin in the province. He wonders if the old wheelbarrow will make it to the square and hopes that it doesn’t rain. This will be the best 60th time he has entered the pumpkin competition and this year he thinks he has a winner!