There was nothing extraordinary about the scene to him. He was simply giving back, decades later, some of everything she had done for him.
The image was taken in 2012 at a hospital in Tainan, Taiwan. His mother was 85 years old, suffered from heart problems and hypertension, and had also broken a leg. Because she was too weak and he was afraid of hurting her by putting her in a wheelchair, her 61-year-old son decided to hold her against his chest while they waited for care and feed her in his arms.
But that gesture didn’t begin that day. For years, he had arranged his life to stay close to her. He even turned down a promotion at work because it would have meant moving to Taipei, and some time later, he retired early so he could care for her full time.
He once said he spent practically 24 hours a day looking after his mother and even slept beside her so he could help her whenever she needed it. So when the photograph began circulating and thousands of people praised his devotion, he didn’t really understand the surprise: to him, caring for her was simply what he was supposed to do.
His mother passed away just days after that image became known. He had spent years by her side until her final days.
When he was a child, it was her arms that held him up. At the end of her life, it was her son’s arms that were there to hold her.