Sometimes, the most ordinary people are capable of achieving the greatest love.
A humble husband from a small Chinese village has demonstrated the true meaning of dedication after taking care of his bed-ridden wife for 56 years.
Du Yuanfa, a farmer living in the village of Sunjiayu in east China's Shandong Province, quit his job as a coal miner to look after his wife Zhou Yu'ai day and night after she became paralysed in 1959.
Du, 84, and Zhou, 76, had been married for just five months when Zhou was struck by a mysterious disease at the age of 20 and lost the ability to move her body.
At the time, Du was working in a coal mine in the nearby Tai'an city.
He was informed of the tragic news in a letter sent by his family, which contained a brief message: 'Your wife is sick and bed-bound.'
Du immediately took a long leave from work and returned home. There, he saw his new wife lying in bed, incapable of doing the most basic things for herself.
He said Zhou's whole body was stiff and she could not turn. She wasn't able to hold objects in her hands and had to be spoon-fed meals.
Determined to have his wife cured, Du put her in a wheelchair and took her to numerous hospitals for consultations.
The diagnoses was unanimous: Zhou lost the ability to reproduce and would be bed-ridden for the rest of her life.
Du said many of his friends told him to annul his marriage and start a new life, but the devoted man refused.
He told his wife: 'Don't worry. I will care for you forever.'
Afterwards, Du quit his job in order to look after his sick wife full-time.
