I Regained My Step after Twenty Years.

At the first sight, people are completely unaware that I was disabled for 20 years.

When I was two years old, I had difficulty in moving my right leg. It got so twisted and deformed that I could not place my sole flat on the ground and even put on my shoe, and the right leg became longer than the left one.

Though it was only 15 minutes’ walk to school, it took me over an hour. I was afraid of going out and received school education at home since 12.

At the age of 16, I was admitted to the Pyongyang University of Medical Sciences Hospital.

My doctor in change was Jang Myong Guk, the then chief of the microsurgery research department, who succeeded in the operation of many cases in his scores-of-year career. But mine was the first-ever case for him, I was told later.

Even now I am not aware of how much effort the doctors have made for my recovery, how many times I have had medical checkups and laboratory tests, and how many new treatment methods are introduced. On top of that, I hardly know how much my medical treatment and medicines cost.

But I am well aware of the sincerity and devotion shown by the doctors and nurses just the same as my mother does for me.

For such a long period of five years until I got completely recovered, they took care of me as their own flesh and blood. They read me books when I was in pain, prepared delicious dishes to improve my appetite, and inspired me with hope.

At last, after 20 years of my disability, I stood on my own. The day when I walked out of the hospital in high-heeled shoes, all the doctors and nurses were most pleased and gave hearty congratulations.

Their looks were engraved in my mind as those of my grandfather, uncles, aunts and sisters, and they get more lifelike even after six years.

I feel keenly that the society where I live now and my children will live is a great harmonious family.