Tuti and her husband Edy have lived in a simple stilt house by the Angke River for over 20 years. They felt sorry for those who were poorer than them and for children who never had enough to eat. Therefore, they raised ten children, seven of them adopted from poor families. This ordinary couple loves other people's children like their own. Their extraordinary love has created a fairy tale in this human world.

At 3:30 in the morning, Tuti, who lives in the Tzu Chi Great Love Village in Jakarta, Indonesia, is already up. She walks to her buffet restaurant in the village and begins to cook fried rice and noodles. At six, the sun is shining and Tuti brings the food she has cooked to the Tzu Chi School in the village and sells it at the school's convenience store. She returns to her restaurant at noon and sells food to customers. Usually, she doesn't go home until ten at night.

Tuti, 45, looks very tired from getting up so early, but she still manages to smile sweetly. "Now the kids can eat anything they want," she says with a satisfied air, but then she starts to choke up. "I never dare to think about our past... We had to share very little food. Sometimes a meal would just be rice with a few pieces of shrimp cake."

Tuti and her husband Edy, 50, have been raising ten children, seven of them adopted.

Edy says, "In the blink of an eye, our children are growing up! I can't imagine how we survived those days..."

How did they survive those bygone days? If a human life is like a drama, the scenarios of this family are definitely very intricate and moving.

Settling down by the Angke

Tuti and Edy originally came from Rumajang, 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of Surabaya on the island of Java. Tuti's father left home a month before she was born. Her mother, a street vendor, had to raise Tuti and an adopted sister. Because the family was poor, Tuti stopped going to school after finishing elementary school. However, a teacher invited her to baby-sit her child as a way to pay for her tuition, so Tuti was able to attend junior high school until an accident happened two months before her graduation.

"A neighbor asked my mom to pawn a gold necklace and we got 20,000 rupiah, but the money was stolen! So my mom had to sell our home to pay back the neighbor."

Therefore, mother and daughters left the town with no money at all. They went to Jakarta, the dream city for people living in the countryside, by hitching rides on six cars and walking for several days.

"I was willing to do anything so long as I wouldn't be sold off," said Tuti. "Luckily, my mom, sister, and I all got jobs as housemaids." Then sixteen years old, Tuti worked as a maid in a Chinese family.

Edy also stopped schooling for several years when he finished elementary school, and then he attended the same junior high school with Tuti. He had to drop out of high school because again he could not pay the tuition. Later, he went to work in a factory in Jakarta.

When Tuti was in ninth grade, she, Edy, and a few good friends went to a studio to have their photograph taken. Edy and Tuti's photo is still on the first page of their family photo album. Tuti is wearing a white top, a red skirt, and a pair of sandals; she looks like an innocent girl. Edy is wearing a white top, flared brown trousers, and looks very handsome. They are holding hands and looking at each other passionately.

Edy laughed, "At that time, our friends egged us on to take this photo, but we never thought that we would actually get married."

Missing the Chinese family

In 1978, 19-year-old Tuti married Edy, and their son Dedy was born the following year. All the necessary fees were paid for by Tuti's Chinese boss.

Five years after their marriage, Tuti quit her job to look after her husband and her son. The Chinese family didn't want her to leave, and they told her that she could go back if she ever had any problems. "That family was very nice and cared for me," said Tuti. "They even asked me to go back to China with them, but my mom refused."

Tuti still feels very grateful to her old boss even though it has been 30 years since she last worked for him. He has passed away, but Tuti remains in contact with his children. "That boss was the first benefactor in my life," she said.

After Dedy was born, the family moved into a rented stilt house built on the bank of the Angke River. The river reeked of garbage and excrement, but Tuti and Edy were too poor to move to a better place. The family has now lived there for 24 years.

Edy worked in a factory for four years before switching to sewing. Since he has done this for over a decade, both of his hands have developed thick calluses.

Their daughter Sri was born six years after their marriage. With a son and a daughter, Tuti and Edy should have been very happy. However, Edy's health started to fall the same year. His sewing job was stop and go, and he couldn't earn enough to buy himself any medicine.

Later, Edy rented a motorized cart to be used as a taxi. "Daily rent for the cart was 6,000 rupiah [US$0.65]. After the rent was deducted, the income was okay. But when I got sick, I couldn't work." He worked for only three years, and then Tuti had to support the whole family. Edy said, "Tuti had to make cakes and cookies and then carry them around on the top of her head to sell them. It was really hard on her."

Adopting children

The poor couple supported each other. They raised their own children and also adopted several children who didn't have enough food to eat.

Romli was the first child the couple adopted. He was a child of their neighbor, Ina. The family was very poor and had many children, all of whom never had enough to eat. Tuti felt sorry for Romli, so she would give him some food, and Romli often went with Tuti to sell cakes. Later, Ina divorced her husband and asked Tuti to adopt Romli. Romli became Tuti's child in 1985.

The following year, Erni also became a family member. She was also a neighbor's child, and she liked to come to Tuti's home. Her parents eventually asked Tuti to adopt Erni, who was six years old at the time.

Tuti and Edy now had two sons and two daughters, and it became harder for the family of six to get enough food. Nonetheless, the couple still fed the children and let them go to school.

In 1986, two-year-old Sri suddenly died and the couple was very sad. However, three-month-old Hasana arrived like a present from heaven, and Edy and Tuti had no time to grieve. Hasana had been adopted by another family when she was born. However, the girl's foster home was demolished because it was illegally built. Hasana was sent back to her natural parents, who couldn't raise her. A mutual friend introduced them to Tuti and Edy, who took the baby in. She was as skinny and as tiny as a kitten. Tuti raised her with her motherly love and the little baby grew bigger day by day.

In the same year, the family had a new member: 13-year-old Sodik. "Sodik was my uncle's son and was raised by my mom," remembered Tuti. "After my mom passed away, he came to our home." Edy sent Sodik to an institute to learn the Koran. His tuition and dormitory fees from junior high to university were all paid by the hard work of Edy and Tuti.

In 1990, the couple lost Dedy, who was ten at the time. "We returned to our hometown and Dedy suddenly developed a fever," said Edy. "Without any proper medical treatment, he died two days later." They buried their son there and returned sadly to Jakarta.

The couple would soon have four more children: Umi, Sunardi, Juwairia, and Fatima.

The sadness of chaos

In 1997, the Asian financial crisis seriously devalued the Indonesian currency and many industries and firms went bankrupt. It was hard for many ordinary people even to survive.

In May the following year, popular uncertainty and resentment erupted in a massive wave of ethnic riots against businesses run by Chinese descendents. The Indonesian economy was almost shattered, hundreds and thousands of people fell below the poverty line, and those who were already poor had even greater problems feeding themselves.

"After her divorce, Romli's mother Ina married Rohim and gave birth to four children," said Tuti. "After the social unrest, their lives became very hard and they argued all the time." Once Ina had a big argument with Rohim and she injured their children out of rage. Rohim felt very upset and went to stay at Tuti's home with three of his children. Rohim then asked Tuti to take their children, since they could no longer sustain themselves. The next day, Ina brought her fourth child, Fatima, to Tuti's home and also begged Tuti to accept all four children. Then she frightened everyone by saying that she would soon commit suicide. Tuti was stunned and told her not to, but Ina still killed herself one week later.

Romli was 21 years old at this time. When he went to see his mother's body in the morgue, he stood there without uttering a word, but finally burst out crying when Tuti gave him a hug.

Rohim, who had lost Ina, asked Tuti to take care of his children. Tuti responded, "The two older children can take care of themselves, so you can care for them. Soon they will be grown up." Tuti and Edy adopted four-year-old Juwairia and 11-month-old Fatima. Romli had never thought that his two half sisters would join him at Tuti's home as one family.

A promise

On October 10, 1998, the Pos Kota newspaper of Jakarta published an article on Ina's suicide. The report concluded that her death was caused by the devaluation of the Indonesian currency after the riots. It also mentioned that many people had problems surviving.

The report brought an outpouring of kindness. Some people donated money, and others brought rice, cooking oil, milk powder, cookies, and other items. Rohim could not use it all, so he asked Tuti and Edy to take some.

"Many people wanted to adopt Fatima when they read the news. One couple wanted to exchange a motorcycle for Fatima," recalls Edy. "They took us to a motorcycle shop and told us to pick any one we wanted, as long as we would give Fatima to them." Tuti and Edy didn't agree to this deal, and the couple went away disappointed.

"How could we give Fatima to other people?" Tuti said. "We promised Fatima's mother we would look after her daughter. If the couple failed to care for Fatima, how could we face her mother?"

A bank manager who wanted to adopt Fatima was also disappointed, but he supported the family with 50,000 rupiah (US$5.00) a month. It wasn't much, but it was of great help to the family. However, the bank went bankrupt a year later and the money stopped coming.

A military officer also sent 50,000 rupiah a month to help raise Fatima. Tuti gave the money to Rohim to raise his two children.

Working funds

Within three days of the news report on Ina's death, Edy and Tuti received over $1.5 million rupiah (US$165.00) in donations. Tuti and Edy used these donations in the best way they could. They paid back the debts incurred for Ina's funeral, and the rest of the money was lent to neighbors, who had 40 days to pay the family back. Forty days later, the neighbors indeed returned the money, rice, and anything else they had borrowed. Then Tuti and Edy again made such loans, this time for 100 days.

"We believe the best way to handle precious food is to lend it to our neighbors, since otherwise it would rot anyway. Besides, we have often borrowed food or money from our neighbors in time of need, too," said Edy. When Umi was young, she was constantly sick. The family had no money to take her to a doctor, so Edy had to borrow from neighbors. "We have borrowed from each and every neighbor along the riverbank. Some neighbors were poorer than us, but they still managed to lend us a little."

Edy and Tuti continued to show generosity and kindness towards Rohim's family. Six months after Ina died, Rohim's home was destroyed by fire. He and his two children moved into Edy's home and stayed there for a month.

Sadness and regret

"No matter how poor we were, we never let our children drop out of school," Tuti said. She once told them, "Although you all came from different families, all of you are dear to my heart. We may be poor, but Daddy and I will make you go to school so you can have a good future."

Among all the children, Sunardi was the one that broke their hearts. Since the boy's family was too poor, Sunardi did not go to school, not even when he was eight years old. He often went to sell cakes with Tuti, and he often stayed at her home before his adoption. In 1996, Sunardi's grandmother asked Tuti to adopt him because his own home had no food to eat.

Sunardi went to school every day, and after school he went with Tuti to sell cakes. "Sunardi was obedient at that time. We didn't know that he would change so much when he grew up," sighed Tuti.

When Sunardi finished elementary school, Edy sent him to the same institute that Sodik was attending. However, Sunardi couldn't endure the hard life there, and he ran away from the institute two years later. He was afraid to go home, so he went to find his own mother. It was in this bad environment that Sunardi learned about drugs. He was only 16 years old.

Tuti and Edy were very upset about this and went to look for Sunardi many times. They wanted to bring him home and let him go to school again. However, Sunardi felt embarrassed about his addiction and said that he didn't dare go back, because the other siblings had behaved well and none of them was like him.

Unable to persuade him to go back, Tuti and Edy still cared about Sunardi. They sent him to the Tzu Chi Free Clinic Center for a tuberculosis examination, and then they sent him to be treated in a hospital.

In June 2004, Sunardi passed away. An eight-year relationship ended unhappily. "We feel embarrassed that we couldn't educate him well," lamented Tuti.

A home with a door

Flooding is normal to residents along the Angke River. The river floods twice a month when the tides rise, and it also floods when it rains.

In January 2000, downpours broke a dam and destroyed the water gates. Worse, the sewage systems in Jakarta were clogged with garbage. Close to 80 percent of the city was inundated.

The filthy water of the Angke River ruined the properties of many residents, causing a lot of material loss and mental suffering. Schools were closed for a month. However, Tuti still carried on with her job. She carried cakes on her head while wading in dirty water. In the deepest places, the water went up to her chin.

This critical moment also became a turning point. The disastrous floods provided the victims with the chance to know Tzu Chi.

When the floods started, the Tzu Chi Indonesia branch also started its relief work. Volunteers went out in the rain to deliver relief goods. With help from naval officers, volunteers took trucks and rubber boats into disaster areas to deliver boxed meals, drinking water, biscuits, and boiled eggs to survivors.

In mid-February, the Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA) held a free clinic next to a church in Kapuk Murua. Edy went there and received some medicine. He was touched by the amiability of the TIMA members, and he went around his village encouraging people to receive treatments.

Edy and his neighbors didn't expect that Tzu Chi would later help them build a large community, schools, a free clinic center, shops, factories, a nursing home, etc. All this changed their lives completely.

A visit by President Megawati

A brand new Tzu Chi Village with 1,100 units was erected in Cengkareng, Jakarta, in July 2003. To help the residents, volunteers visited each resident's former home by the riverbanks, took a picture of it, and handed out rice.

"We came to Tuti's home and saw that she was selling food in her grocery store, so we thought that she didn't need any rice," said volunteer Hung Kuang-tien. "But when we found out what she was doing for the kids, we decided to give her more rice than anyone else."

At the opening ceremony of the new community, many government officials and volunteers came. Tuti represented her neighbors and gave a speech onstage. "Tzu Chi didn't just improve our quality of life, it also taught us to love each other."

When Tuti and Edy received the key to their new home, they hugged each other and cried with joy. What made Tuti the happiest was that on August 25, 2003, President Megawati visited her home in the Tzu Chi Great Love Village and posed for a photo with her.

Their new home is only 427 square feet, so it is very crowded when seven people are squeezed in. However, Tuti's smile expresses her satisfaction and gratitude. She sweeps the house very clean and also helps tidy up the area outside their home every day.

Since moving into their new home, Edy's health has been getting better. However, he still has no steady job. Besides helping Tuti with her buffet restaurant, he also volunteers along with Tzu Chi members.

"After living here for over a year, I still wonder from time to time whether this is real, especially whenever I take out my key to open the door," Tuti said tearfully. "This is the first time in my life that I've lived in a house with a door key."

Becoming a businesswoman

"I used to do anything: selling cakes, boiled eggs, vegetables..." Tuti said. "I carried a basket of cakes on my head, or pushed a cart around, or simply sold groceries from home. As long as I could make money, I didn't care how hard the work was. But now my life has improved. I have a permanent place for my business." Tuti has rented a space in the shopping area inside the Tzu Chi Village, and she has hired two girls to help her in her buffet restaurant.

Around 6 every morning, children start going to school. Tuti sells meals at the school's convenience store. Children can bring their own bowls and buy a bowl of noodles or rice for 500 rupiah.

Sometimes Tuti tells the children to ask their mothers to cook breakfast for them, because she feels that parents should prepare breakfast for their children before they go to school. Tuti doesn't want to make much money from the kids. She feels sorry for parents who are too lazy to cook for their children.

At noon, Tuti gets someone else to look after the convenience store and she returns to her restaurant. When there are many customers, Tuti's children also help clean up or bring water to the customers to reduce her workload.

Tuti is now very happy that her children can eat anything they like. In the past, they could only eat a little or had to share something together, but that was the way it was.

"I've been poor since I was little, but now I feel very fortunate!" said Tuti. "I don't have to think about floods or worry that the kids might be falling into the river again." Fatima once fell into the river, but she was fortunately saved by a neighbor.

Still Thoughts

Hasana, 17, and Umi, 15, are now studying at Tzu Chi Secondary School. Umi's grades are excellent. In October, the Tzu Chi schools chose 20 outstanding students to attend a Tzu Chi educational event in Taiwan and Umi was chosen, which surprised Edy and Tuti.

Juwairia and Fatima are in fifth and first grade respectively at Tzu Chi Elementary School. Edy and Tuti frequently take them to visit Rohim, their natural father, so they won't forget about him.

"We have the responsibility to raise them, but we don't own them," Edy said frankly. "We must allow them to be united with their natural parents. If they don't want their parents, it means we have failed in educating them."

Edy and Tuti are happy that all the children love one another. They always share their food and study diligently together.

With four children in the Tzu Chi schools, Edy and Tuti have a better understanding about the schools. "The first month after the school opened, the students behaved so badly! How could these undisciplined students go to a such nice school?" The couple was very angry and upset. As time went on, the children improved and now the couple is delighted with the good discipline.

Edy often goes to the school and reads the aphorisms from Still Thoughts (a popular book by Master Cheng Yen) hanging on the walls in the hallways, in Chinese, English, and Indonesian. Tuti and Edy are devout Muslims, and Edy is in charge of the finances of the village mosque. To the couple, the messages conveyed in the Koran and Still Thoughts are roughly the same.

......
　

Once upon a time, there was a short, dark, chubby Indonesian woman. She was a normal human being who once got too tired from work and fainted at home. She owed a lot of money because of all the bills for her sick husband and many children. Even now, she still hasn't paid back these debts.

She was poor, but she sympathized with people who were poorer than herself. With her boundless love and compassion, she adopted one child after another. This compassion made her appear rich and powerful.

She had unlimited love, and she used this love to create a fairy tale, a story that is rarely seen in this world. This fairy tale should be spread all over the world.