In January
of this year （1939） Dr. and Mrs. Little and their four
children left us to go to Hong Kong. There Dr. Little will
become Superintendent of the Matilda Hospital. Their
departure was more deeply regretted than words can express.
They had been with us through two dark years of crisis and
uncertainty, and had proven a tower of strength to their
colleagues.
Dr.
Little（John L. Little,
李約翰醫生）.,
unsparing of his physical strength and with keen business
insight, accomplished the herculean task of managing the
Mackay Memorial Hospital alone, and he also improved it in
every department. Operations soared to three times their
former number with sometimes as many as eleven operations a
day by the Doctor himself. The whole hospital was thoroughly
renovated and beautified. Four evangelistic workers had to
assist in the work of teaching spiritual truth to the
ever-increasing number of patients. The morale of our whole
Church in the North, which had suffered when the mission
schools left our hands, was happily heightened by the
hospital’s great improvement, and everybody spoke with pride
of the reputation for efficiency, thoroughness and kindness
that the hospital had gained.
Mrs.
Little （Flora M. Gauld, M.D.）, who is also a medical doctor,
was ever unselfishly ready to help in the hospital or with
outside patients, and she was in great demand as a lecturer
at conferences. She also prepared for distribution diets for
babies, instructions of how to care for children, and taught
simple methods of hygiene in the home.
Someone
has said, “When we go away, we die a little”, I would
paraphrase that and say “When they （our friends） go away, we
die a little”. We dared not dim the brightness of their
plans for the future with too many regrets on our par and we
have had to watch them go, with reluctant hearts, while
bidding the “Godspeed”！ G.
