Granny cooks breakfast for students for 24 years

Students of Huangtankou Primary School eat breakfast at Huang Shihua's food stall. [Photo/Zhejiang News]

It is the love for children that lies behind Mao's affordable breakfast.

"I love kids. Even when I see kids on TV, I want to hug them," she said.

Mao says she wants to cook breakfast for those students coming to school early in the morning from their home in mountainous regions and she wants to make her breakfast available to every student, even those from poor families.

Mao would call each student coming to her food stall "mei", which is a nickname for children in the local dialect. "Boys are my grandson and girls are my granddaughter," she said.

For students at the Huangtankou Primary School, the taste and smell of Mao's food has become their shared memory for the hometown.

After retiring from the army and coming back to Huangtankou in 2011, Mao Lei found the breakfast stall of Mao Shihua was still there with the familiar tastes and smile, just like when he was a student. That made him feel the hometown has not changed.

The food on the breakfast stall are not special in flavor, said Mao Lei, "but they are full of affection."

Mao Shihua has declined her four children's persuasion that she goes to live with them in cities. "I have not stopped laboring for my life. I will fall ill if I just watch TV and stroll all day," she said.

Although the business is toiling for an elderly woman, Mao says the three hours she sells breakfast every morning is the time she feels the most happiness in a day.