She was born February 24, in Edmonton, London. She was rejected to become a missionary numerous times because she was not as equipped as other missonaries to serve, because of a minor health issue. So she saved up all her money that she got from working as a maid and bought a ticket on the Trans-Siberian Railway, a more dangerous but cheaper way to go.
When she got to China she settled in the town of Yangcheng and found a small inn where the owner, Jeannie Lawson, needed assistance. At the inn they housed traveling merchants and gave them what they wanted - a hot meal and Bible stories.
Eventually, she took over the inn and named it the Inn of the Eight Happinesses because of an old Chinese philosophy that there are seven happinesses. Gladys Aylward also could speak Chinese fluently. The Chinese elected her as foot inspector a job nobody wanted because they had to go around and check to see if people bound their female children's feet - it was traditional for women to do this to their children because they all wanted them to have small feet in order to be attractive to men.
While she did this job she also became a peacemaker, stopping numerous fights at jails and street ways. When the Second Sino-Japanese War started, many babies were left behind by escaping parents.
Gladys took these children in and called them her own. By the time Lin a man she fell in love with and was a general in the army forced her to leave, she had taken in 50 children all under the age of Lin told her that in the province next to them there were trucks leaving and taking children to safety, but they had to be there within 3 weeks or trucks would leave without them.
She had no choice but to take the children to safety to have a chance to survive through the war, so it was decided - she and the fifty children were going. Beginning with one small girl, Aylward adopted several destitute children, whom she began to educate.
Soon the mandarin asked her to open a school, and enrolled his own children in it as an example to others. During the tumultuous s, she became intimately familiar with both the terrain and people of her district. Thus, she was able to hide herself and her adopted children from the Japanese invaders, whose brutal atrocities filled her with horror and anger. She gradually began to collect and relay information about enemy troop movements to government forces, even as she cared for more wounded and homeless refugees and orphans in the caves near Yangcheng.
When she printed a story reflecting her feelings, the Japanese sent out a warrant for her arrest. They had already renewed their advance into her area, killing women and children indiscriminately, so she knew she had to take the little ones in her care to safety.
The epic journey to Xian leading 94 children tested all her mental, physical, and spiritual resources. Only faith in God kept her going. Other inaccuracies in the film include a supposed romantic relationship with Col Linnan; this and other liberties with the truth deeply troubled Aylward.
The nearly-miraculous arrival in Xian left Ayward, who had been wounded in a strafing attack and struck with the butt of a Japanese rifle, utterly spent and very ill. Poor health and headaches plagued her for the last thirty years of her life, but did not dampen her zeal to serve China and especially its children. In , in poor health, she returned to England.
China was now a Communist country, making it impossible for her to go back, but she moved to Formosa, now Taiwan, and opened another orphanage, later run by some of her grown-up adopted children.
It became a bestseller. Soon Hollywood came calling, eager to turn it into a movie. Aylward had reservations, but hoped it would accurately reflect the Christian focus of her life.
Although the movie was popular, and its climax included the dramatic escape through the mountains, it did change some important facts. Ingrid Bergman, a major movie star at the time, was chosen to play Aylward. Bergman, however, looked nothing like the woman she was portraying — she was very tall, blonde, and spoke with a Swedish accent. The screenplay changed the name of the inn from Inn of Eight Happinesses to The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, also the title of the film, and included a love interest for her character.
Aylward remained indignant at this insertion of "love scenes" and the film ending that implied she'd left the children and gone off with Lin.
Lawson and Gladys provided forage for the mules, a nourishing supper, and then would entertain the men with Bible stories as a Christian witness. As time when on, Gladys became fluent in Chinese and learned to work with Lawson who was in increasing stages of dementia.
One day she was visited by the local Mandarin magistrate , a man held in the highest honor and even fear by the local citizens. Wherever she went, she not only examined feet, but also spoke of the Lord Jesus and the salvation He offered to all who believed. Only two years before she had been a parlor maid in an English manor. Over the years, little groups of believers in each of these villages began meeting together to worship the Lord—fruit of her ministry.
In was during this time that the Prison Riot occurred. Noting the miserable condition of the prisoners, the basic cause of the riot, she insisted that the warden allow the men to work to provide better clothing for themselves. She was able to secure two looms for them to make cloth for clothes and to sell, plus a mill for grinding grain. She encouraged hygiene and visited often to speak of Jesus and to encourage them. One man who responded was a leader named Feng. One day she saw a poor woman sitting by a wall with a small, very dirty child.
All she had was nine pence. The woman agreed, probably sure that the infant would die anyhow. This was the first child she adopted. Soon she had more, many more, especially as the country erupted into war.
The local Mandarin magistrate liked to talk with her. He spoke of his long years of education in the Confucian classics. As Gladys listened, she came to appreciate the Confucian ethical content but noted the lack of a provision of spiritual power such as she knew through the Holy Spirit, the missing hope of forgiveness through the sacrifice of Christ, and a total absence of expectation of life beyond the grave.
He also shared news with her: the periodic flooding of the Yellow River, the problems of poverty and ignorance of the populace, but most of all the invasion of the Japanese with planes and troops coming ever nearer.
She felt more and more identified with the people and decided to become a Chinese citizen. One day the Mandarin invited her to a special dinner. The prison warden was there, as were other officials, and several wealthy merchants. Then he stood and gave a speech:. Her faith was alive. More than anyone the Mandarin had ever met, Ai-Weh-Deh demonstrated the power of love. She loved China so much she became a citizen… The Mandarin admitted he had debated with her the merits of her faith against the merits of his old Confucius ways, a hundred times.
But Confucianism lives in my head, not in my heart, as Christianity does in Ai-Weh-Deh and her converts. Wellman, p. She made friends with officers of the Chinese Nationalist army, led by Chiang Kai-shek. At one time she thought she was in love with Colonel Linnan who wanted to marry her.
But she realized they had two very different goals in life, and above all, he was not a Christian. Through Linnan she came to see that China not only faced the danger of the Japanese invasion, but that another Chinese army, the Communists, while now collaborating with the Nationalists, would one day provoke a civil war.
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