https://proudstars.blogspot.com/2015/11/when-only-child-dies-one-child-families.html
When an only child dies
"One-child families are walking a tightrope," Fan said. "Once you lose your child, you lose all hope."
Zheng Qing was devastated when she heard the news last month that China will scrap the one-child policy. It was too late to have a second child. She thought it was a great honour to follow the one child policy at that time but now feels the rule has let her down badly.
She and her husband are among more than a million grievingChinese parents who have lost the only child that the government allowed them to have.
Zheng’s husband, Fan Guohi, 56, has petitioned the government to give "shidu" parents, those who have lost their only child, both moral and financial support. Their son died from a car accident in 2012. His loss left the couple "emotionally ruined", Zheng said.
"One-child families are walking a tightrope," Fan said. "Once you lose your child, you lose all hope."
Cui Wenlan’s son was 30 when he died after an illness; she had been forced to abort her second baby in 1985. Now she and her husband are adrift in a country where parents traditionally rely on their children to look after them in old age.
"If, back then, we had been allowed to give birth again, I wouldn't be in so much trouble and wouldn't be so lonely," said Cui, 53, from the northern city of Zhangjiakou
.
.
