Families of those on board, many from China, have found different ways to cope with the grief over the years, but one thing is constant — their mission for justice and answers. The pain continues to torment some families in China, who are skeptical of theories of the plane’s fate and hang on to hope that their loved ones may one day return.Like Grace, Chinese farmer Li Eryou also has not held a funeral or memorial service for his only son.He has a board at home on which he counts each passing day since MH370 disappeared. Li Yanlin, 27, had a promising career as an engineer with a Chinese telecommunications company that was cut short by the tragedy.The pain comes easily, triggered by a sound, an object, even a flower, Li said.“All these years I’ve been drifting along in life like a ghost,” Li said in an interview in China’s Handan city. “When I meet my friends and relatives, I have to put on a smile. At night, I can become true to myself. When all is quiet in the dead of night, I weep without people knowing.”Li recently moved to stay with his daughter due to poor health. At his former residence, newspaper clippings of the missing aircraft that have yellowed with age still hang on the wall and his son’s room is kept largely untouched.“I believe my son is still on the flight, that he’s still around. Or he is living on a remote island like Robinson Crusoe,” Li said, in a reference to his son’s favorite book.Li and his wife seldom travel but have made multiple trips to Malaysia to seek answers and to Madagascar, where parts of the aircraft have washed up on beaches. The lack of answers merely deepens their agony.They are among about 40 Chinese families that have rejected a small compassion payment from the airline. They have sued five entities including Malaysia Airlines, Boeing and aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce, seeking larger compensation and answers to who should be held accountable. Court hearings started in Beijing in November and a verdict could take months.On the 100th day after the flight vanished, Li penned his first poem expressing his longing for his son. Since then, he has written about 2,000 that have helped him cope with the grief.“We shouted to the Earth: Malaysia Airlines 370. The Earth roars, it is silent and does not go away. It’s not here, not here. Don’t you see the heavy backpack on my son’s shoulders? Drops of sweat from hard work shine on his forehead,” says one verse. “We appeal 10,000 times, restart the search.”“I wrote down my feelings. The only reason I could survive all these years is because of these words,” Li said.There is now new hope for closure. During a 10-year remembrance event in Kuala Lumpur last Sunday, Malaysia’s government said it will consider a proposal for a new search by U.S. marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity, which conducted a “no find, no fee” hunt in 2018. It is unclear whether Ocean Infinity has new data to pinpoint the location of the plane.“Once we know what happened, only then can a true form of healing begin … until those questions are answered, no matter how much you try to move on or how much you try to close that chapter, it will never go away,” Grace said.
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