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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 US teenager thanks Taiwanese ‘life savers’
Octogenerian Po A-chu in Hualien County on Wednesday last week holds a letter written from the US by a teenager named Sam to her late husband Yang Cheng-wen, who found the newborn Sam abandoned outside their store in September 2005. Photo: CNA
RECONNECTED: Sam, who was once abandoned in a box in front of a store in Hualien County, sent a letter to the woman who saved him, who hopes to meet him soon
By Hua Meng-ching and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Ten years after his adoption by a US couple, a teenager who was abandoned as a newborn was able to pass on a letter to the couple who found him.
This was possible thanks to the efforts of the local police and a retired officer who responded to the initial case.
In the letter addressed to Yang Cheng-wen （楊正文）, 15-year-old Sam thanked him for “saving his life,” and told of his interests and life in the US.
He also mentioned his desire to travel to Hualien County with his family, asking if Yang would be willing to meet them and to write back.
The letter was received by the Chung Yi Social Welfare Foundation, the organization that handled the adoption, which then passed it to the police station in Hualien County’s Fuyuan Village （富源） to find Yang.
With help from the officer who responded to the case, Lin Mao-lung （林茂隆）, assistant chief Liu Yu-chun （劉裕君） was able to track down Yang’s address.
Unfortunately, the letter was too late to reach Yang, who passed away eight years ago, but his wife, 84-year-old Po A-chu （柏阿珠）, received it on Wednesday.
Lin read the letter to the delighted Po, who then placed it and the accompanying photographs carefully in her pocket as she recalled the moment when she and her husband discovered the boy.
On an early September morning in 2005, Po said, her husband heard a child crying outside the general store that they had been running for more than 30 years.
Outside they found a cardboard box with a crying bundle wrapped in a towel, she said.
“He really was a strong and lively little boy,” she said as she recalled how the child flailed all four limbs.
After receiving the report, Lin rushed to the store, where he said he found a child so young that his umbilical cord was still attached.
“Thankfully he was found so early, otherwise he might have been taken away by wild dogs,” he said.
Inside the box, he also found parts of a bracelet, which he believes the birth mother left for the child to identify her if they ever have the chance to meet again.
“It is really like the plot of a soap opera,” he added.
Po said she hopes that Sam does well in his studies and flourishes as a person.
She also urged him to come back soon to see her, as she is “already very old.”
Po’s daughter said that she has already reached out to Sam and hopes to meet him soon.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
