Today we meet an immigrant from China who has become a cherished member of the community in rural Yunlin. Wu Fengyu moved from Fujian toTaixi Township for marriage, but when she lost her husband, she had to take on the family gas company. The hard manual labor of delivering gas was not a job she had expected to inherit, but with a family to provide for, she found the willpower to learn. Now, delivering heavy gas canisters looks easy when she’s at work.

Gas supplier Wu Fengyu calmly maneuvers an 80-kilogram gas canister that’s almost as tall as she is.

Wu grew up in Fujian, China, and moved to Taixi Township to marry her husband, who ran this gas business at the time. After his untimely death from illness, she had to take over his role in the business. At first, she could barely lift a small canister and would need a week’s rest after one day hauling gas around. But she remembers how one comment from her child spurred her on.

Wu Fengyu
Gas supplier and Chinese immigrant
When my husband collapsed, it was so sudden, I was paralyzed. But my kid came home from school and said, “Mom, I’m hungry, what can I eat?” When I heard that, suddenly a flood of tears came. I thought, “I can’t collapse, I must get up again, for my child.”

It was a tough journey to abruptly take over the business. She couldn’t hire anyone to deliver canisters, so she had to do it herself. To learn the routes, she took a job in a lunchbox store and learned the streets of the town by delivering food. Then she learned how to handle the heavy canisters.

She’s on call all day long, delivering canisters whenever they’re needed. Sometimes she also helps customers sort out miscellaneous problems.

Almost everyone in Taixi knows her now, and everyone respects her capacity to lug the canisters all over town.

Wu Fengyu
Gas supplier and Chinese immigrant
People see me delivering gas, they’re standing at the side, and they mutter to someone, “It’s not just men doing hard labor these days! Look, this woman can do it as well as the men!” I’m very grateful for that.

Wu is full of gratitude to have reached where she is now, after the loss of her husband. She’s grateful to him for her happy years of marriage, and grateful to all her neighbors in Taixi, whose acceptance has given her the courage she needs to face each day with optimism.

This story was provided by the program "We Are Family"
Funded by New Immigrant Development Fund

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