69-year-old Xia Boyu recently became the oldest double amputee (双侧截肢者) to climb Mount Qomolangma. That is amazing, but even what is more impressive is the fact that he did it after he tried four times.

Xia Boyu’s first try to reach the top of Mount Qomolangma was in 1975, as part of an expedition (远征) by the Chinese Government. With only 250 meters to go from reaching the top, the team was stopped by bad weather. To make sure that everyone made it back alive, the team decided to turn back and finish their dream another time.

On the way, Xia Boyu gave his sleeping bag to one of his teammates who was in worse shape than him. Unluckily, this selfless act made him lose both his feet to frostbite (冻伤).

In 1996, Xia Boyu got cancer. But it also didn’t stop the mountain climber from realizing his dream of climbing the world’s highest peak. “Climbing Mount Qomolangma is my dream, ” Xia said. “I have to realize it. It also stands for a personal challenge, a challenge of fate. ”

Over twenty years after losing his feet, Xia Boyu trained to get his body ready for another try at climbing Mount Qomolangma. In 2014, he tried again, but finally had to turn back because of bad weather. The same thing happened the following year, as well as in 2016.

In 2018, Xia Boyu finally reached the top of Mount Qomolangma on his fifth try. He thus became only the second double amputee to climb the world’s highest mountain top, after Mark Inglis from New Zealand, who did it in 2006, and the first to do it from the Nepal (尼泊尔) side.

Ahlam Sarai,a 54-year-old Syrian woman,finally realized her dream of opening the first vegetarian(素食的)restaurant in her hometown of Sweida.

Sarai’s dream began more than 1l years ago, when she was inspired by her two children, who had decided to become vegetarians, and tried to cook appealing food without meat or other animal products. After becoming a master cook of vegetarian dishes, an idea came to her mind, which was “Why don’t I open a restaurant to cook vegetarian dishes for people?”

However, Sarai tried running the business from home at first due to a lack of money and resources needed to open a restaurant. She promoted her home-made vegetarian dishes on social media and delivered the food by bus. When Sarai’s business grew, she met her current partner and opened a restaurant which has grown larger in the past year and attracted more customers. She also brought in a young dessert chef, a vegetarian who makes desserts with natural sweeteners(甜味剂)such as grapes and molasses(糖浆). Now every morning,Sarai comes to the kitchen, puts on a head covering and gloves,and cooks various vegetarian dishes for her customers.

The Syrian woman hopes to spread the idea of vegetarianism in her country, where meat is the main ingredient in the majority of the local cuisines, by creating a special place for vegetarians who may feel uncomfortable when dining out with friends.

Zeir Atrash, a 22-year-old regular customer of Sarai’s restaurant, said that she felt a sense of belonging after the vegetarian restaurant was opened in Sweida, as she used to feel embarrassed when going to normal restaurants with her friends.

Nowadays, even restaurants in the capital Damascus have started to order food from Sarai’s restaurant in Sweida to cater to(迎合)the vegetarians and other customers curious about this kind of food. It is worth noting that non-vegetarian eaters are attracted partly by the much lower prices Sarai’s restaurant offers, since many are struggling with their livelihoods in the tough economic situation.

Having decided to join Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (游行) with our five-year-old daughter, Kerry, we caught the dawn train to Grand Central along with hundreds of excited celebrants. Like many other families, we packed a small backpack with sliced turkey sandwiches and juice boxes—eating in New York City is expensive. Kerry was wide-eyed and a little overwhelmed.

As the train pulled into the terminal (终点站) , everyone rose and anxiously waited to head toward the parade route along Fifth Avenue. We waited until everyone stepped off onto the platform. As we walked up to the entrance to the terminal, Kerry spotted a homeless woman sitting in the shadows, invisible to all except my curious daughter. “What’s that?” she asked in confusion. Linda and I looked at each other. We gave a simple and honest explanation.

The following year, we decided to attend the parade again. So the night before Thanksgiving we went shopping for sliced turkey for sandwiches. Again, Kerry caught us off guard. “Can we bring some sandwiches for those people?” she asked. We knew immediately whom she meant. This was a golden opportunity to honor Kerry’s sense of charity. That night we prepared two dozen sandwiches into our overstuffed backpack.

The next morning we took the train into Manhatan again but there was a different excitement in our little family. We were still inside the terminal when Kerry spotted the first homeless man siting motionless in a dark corner. She extracted a sandwich and took it over to him. Neither spoke a word. Then we were off to the parade, stopping along the way to distribute the rest of the sandwiches, except one for each of us. Somehow, no giant Thanksgiving sit-down feast ever tasted as good as those sandwiches.

Decades later, Kerry still fulfills her sense of kindness and generosity on this day, and passes on her good example with her daughters. There’s nothing like sharing a turkey sandwich with new friends.