On December 16 80 year old Swiss national Hans was laid to rest in China, because of a friendship he made in 1999.

Song Yang went to Britain in 1999 to study. He was 19 years old at the time. On his third day in London, he met Hans. Seeing that Hans was struggling with all the things he was carrying, Song Yang offered to help. This act of kindness lead to a deep and meaningful friendship.

Hans was born in Switzerland in 1933, his mother died when he was 3 years old and his stepmother wasn’t good to him. He had a variety of jobs growing up, eventually moving to London.

Not long after they met, Song Yang moved into Hans’ flat. The place was small but Song Yang had his own bed, was able to find a job. He would do chores around the flat and help massage Hans’ aches and pains. They lived this way for eight years.

During that time Song Yang returned to China six times, each time bringing Hans with him. At first Song Yang’s family were concerned, but then Song Yang’s grandmother went to England for three months and saw that the two men were economically independent and that they watched out for each other. She was impressed by the affection between them; they were family.

In 2007, Song Yang moved back to his hometown of Zhengzhou. On leaving, he arranged for a classmate to look after Hans. However, in just a few months it was clear Hans was getting sick and had lost 20kg in weight, so Song Yang moved him to China to live with him until his death earlier this month. 

Source: s1979

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Keywords: meaningful friendship; act of kindness