- A divorced couple in China who remarried to care for autistic son have been hailed by mainland social media
- The pair said they decided to reunite after their son’s condition was diagnosed and he needed additional care
A couple in northern China who remarried after being told their son had developed autism after they divorced have been lauded on mainland social media for putting their child’s needs first.
The mother, surnamed Huang, married the father, who was not named, in 2013 and divorced six years later, news site Bailu Video reported. The couple, who also have an older daughter, remarried in January this year.
Huang said they filed for a divorce in 2019 in Hebei province, citing poor communication as the primary cause. The court awarded the daughter’s custody to Huang and the son’s to her ex-husband.
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Soon after the split, they found their son, born in 2018, began behaving abnormally. They took the boy to see doctors who diagnosed him with autism.
“Soon after we divorced, the coronavirus pandemic began. So I did not move out, and we still lived in the same house,” Huang said.
“As our son has autism, we decided to face the upcoming difficulties together.”
Since then, the husband has been selling fish to pay for his son’s rehabilitation treatment while Huang often takes the boy to other provinces to seek expert medical advice.
“It’s been tough for us in the past two years. A common scenario in our family is that I comfort my husband, or he comforts me back,” Huang said.
Huang said she decided to remarry her former husband after the hardships they endured together, and she witnessed his contributions to the family.
“My son is five and a half years old. His rehabilitation treatment has not achieved much progress,” said Huang. “No matter what his condition is in the future, we will face it without any misgivings.”
The couple’s story has been read more than 86 million times on Weibo and received 3,000 comments at the time of writing, with many saying they had been moved by the family’s commitment to each other and their noble act.
“That’s what parents should do: take responsibility. A couple divorced when they thought they were not suitable for each other but when disaster befell the family, they could join together for the sake of their kid and support each other,” one comment said that had 15,000 likes.
Another online observer wrote: “This case strongly demonstrates this truth – love can not defeat family bonds. A person may not change for their spouse but they will do anything for their child.”
A third person said: “They sent a positive message to society. I hope their life will get better and better.”
Touching remarriage stories often trend on mainland social media.
Last month, a Shanghai man remarried his former wife after she was diagnosed with a serious blood disease.
In January, a man in central China’s Henan province contacted his ex-wife after hearing that she got uraemia and proposed to remarry her. He also offered to donate a kidney to her. The woman at first refused, fearing her illness would burden him, but later agreed after being moved by his sincerity.
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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.
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