Gladys Aylward
A Life That Refused to Quit
After Communist forces took control of China in 1949, Gladys was forced to leave. It broke her heart.
She later continued working with orphans in Taiwan, where she spent the rest of her life caring for children.
In 1957, her story was told in a book called The Small Woman. A year later, a Hollywood film called The Inn of the Sixth Happiness was released, starring Ingrid Bergman. Gladys did not think the movie told her story accurately — but it made her known to millions.
She died on January 3, 1970.
Gladys Aylward once said, “The eagle that soars in the upper air does not worry itself how it is to cross rivers.”
She had crossed many rivers in her life — fear, rejection, war, hardship — and she never stopped moving forward.