Father keeps body of teenage son in freezerA devastated father has kept his 18-year-old son’s dead body in a chest freezer for the last six years because it makes him feel he has ‘never left’.
Tian Xueming, of Huangling, near southern China’s giant Chongqing mega-city, has refused all requests to move son Qinyuan’s body to a family tomb. And the 54-year-old carpenter has even set up a series of back-up electricity generators to keep the freezer running during the district’s frequent power cuts. Mr Xueming said: ‘It makes me feel as if my son has never left me. He said: ‘After the death of my daughter I gave up my job so I could spend more time with my wife and son.’ The married couple’s daughter died at home at the age of 15 after she collapsed one hot day in summer. He said: ‘It took ages for the ambulance to arrive and I blamed myself – by the time rescuers arrived there was nothing else that could be done to save her. ‘I should have taken her to hospital myself but I kept thinking they would arrive at any minute – I will never forgive myself. ‘My son was the only thing that was keeping us going.’ Mr Xueming said his ‘clever’ son had just started college, where he was doing well, before they learned he was seriously ill. ‘Then just a short while later we received the terrible news that Qinyuan was sick and after tests we found out he had leukaemia, and that there was nothing more that could be done to save him’, he said. ‘We were devastated. We visited many doctors but there was nothing else we could do. ‘I just prayed we would not lose him. ‘When he died I just couldn’t face never seeing my child again so we decided to put him in a freezer to preserve his body.’ Mr Xueming came up with the idea of keeping his son’s body in the freezer shortly after he died. He consulted his wife who also thought it would be a good idea. He said: ‘Not many people knew at first what we had done as we did not want anyone to find out. We kept it a secret for a long time. But over the years the news spread. ‘People have tried to persuade us to bury Qinyuan but I always say no.’ Mr Xueming and his wife still visit their son’s body, which they say helps them to deal with their problems. |
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