The world of Tzu Chi March 2023 (Vol.145)

TZU CHI 145 13 Stephanie’s husband devoted himself to Tzu Chi’s charitable missions. After the birth of her youngest child in 2009, Stephanie’s condition worsened. She was inexplicably anxious and nervous, turning into an insomniac. She thought she could no longer bear it and that her life was coming to an end. Witnessing her husband becoming a Tzu Chi commissioner in 2010, while she was still a volunteer in training after three years, she cried to her husband, “Sadly, I have not been commissioned. Could you let me put on the set of blue top and white trousers (the uniform of Tzu Chi volunteers) when I pass away?” Being down in the dumps, Stephanie was curious as to what Master would tell her. She thought, “The CEO of Tzu Chi KL & Selangor Chapter, Echo Chien, should be the person closest to Master,” and so, she initiated to arrange for a meeting with Echo Chien to seek answers. Echo Chien told her, “You have to do more.” Stephanie was puzzled, “I am almost dying and you are saying, ‘do more’?” Despite her confusion, she took Echo Chien’s words to heart, and made a vow to do more. Meeting Tzu Chi at her turning point and receiving Master Cheng Yen’s blessing that “everything happens for a reason”, Stephanie learned to see things in a different light. Looking for ways to become better, she tried counselling to mend issues from the In August 2017, Stephanie Chew hosted a charity sale event at the One City shopping mall in Subang Jaya, to raise funds for the construction of Tzu Chi International School Kuala Lumpur. [Photo by How Siew Geok]