The Bridge: heartbreaking reality with hopeful possibilities

The Bridge by Kay Bratt. In present day China, the home of an old woman faces the Lucky Bridge, the famous bridge where birth parents leave their children in the hopes that someone will find them and give them a better future. In the old days, walking over the bridge during a marriage ceremony or at the New Year was said to bring the individual good luck. Mothers hope that the bridge’s luck would be bestowed on their children. Jing is the unofficial and reluctant guardian of the bridge. When no one else steps in, Jing does. Briefly taking them in and then delivering them to a local orphanage. She always said she was done, no more children. Until one day, one little boy, Fei Fei, softens her heart and changes her life. 

Inspired by her real life experience while working in a Chinese orphanage, Kay Bratt writes a heartwarming and compassionate novella. The Bridge is a short but powerful read. She also wrote a memoir about her experience in China and in the orphanage, Silent Tears; A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage. Having read the memoir and knowing the background of this phenomenon of parents abandoning their children gives The Bridge its heartbreaking reality and yet hopeful possibilities. I loved the main characters of Jing, Fei Fei, and Jing’s daughter, Qian. I highly recommend reading The Bridge as well as Silent Tears. It will break your heart but leaving you believing in the power of the change a single person can bring. 

The Bridge is available in eBook

Silent Tears; A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage 

is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook

Silent Tears: one woman's journey volunteering in a Chinese orphanage

Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage by Kay Bratt is a true story of her experience in China and her time as a volunteer at a local orphanage. It is a story of adversity, setbacks and triumphs as she fought against the Chinese bureaucracy to help the country’s orphaned and abandoned children. In 2003, Ms. Bratt and her family relocated to a rural Chinese village as her husband took on a new management position for his employer. She begins to volunteer at the local orphanage and soon it becomes more than just something to fill her days. She begins a crusade to improve the living children and minimize the unnecessary deaths of the children. Silent Tears is the collection of her journal entries from their four-year assignment in China and chronicles the emotions, hurdles and daily frustrations faced by Ms. Bratt and her fellow volunteers as they strive to become champions for these marginalized children. A story with a message that everyone can make a difference. Big or small, it is still a difference. 

Silent Tears is a vivid memoir of strength and determination as Ms. Bratt fights against despair at the conditions of these children and the powerlessness she often feels when her efforts are for naught. She is unapologetic as she describes the conditions these children live in, the circumstances beyond their control that brought them to the orphanage in the first place. Ms. Bratt finds the inner strength to pursue her mission day after day to bring a small bit of happiness to these children’s lives and smiles to their faces. My heart broke as Ms. Bratt talks about the different children who lived there, the treatment they received from the workers and her strives to carefully improve what she saw. I admire Ms. Bratt’s determination to help these children. I also appreciate that she doesn’t gloss over or hide her own preconceived notions and even prejudices as she enters a world so different. It is evident she has a big and open heart for the children she helps care for. I enjoyed the personal letters she included at the end as an update for some of the children she talks about in the book. I highly recommend Silent Tears. 

Silent Tears is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook