“I immediately adored both her and her mother,” Schmidt said. “They’ve been through a very tough time but they’ve just kept positive about it and kept going forward.”

After several long car trips, Schmidt began doing other favors for Cai. She called her dentist and set up an appointment to have Cai’s teeth, some of which were damaged in the accident, examined. She is looking into occupational therapy for Cai. And on Thursday, Cai and her mother sat down with Schmidt and her family for a Thanksgiving meal.

Schmidt’s generosity is only the tip of the iceberg of the community’s response to Cai’s plight, and the overwhelming commitment has affected Cai deeply.

“My home is thousands of miles away, so it just makes me feel at home, the things they do for me,” Cai said. “(Because of) the injury my body makes me feel painful, but at least I think my heart — I have got so much — which makes me strong enough to get through all of these things.”

The accident

The first thing Cai remembers is hanging by her seat belt in a flipped car. Seconds before, the red Subaru Forester had zipped down I-75. The four other passengers were University of Michigan students. Like Cai, they were from China. None had been in the U.S. for more than a few months.

Somehow, control of the car had been lost. According to the accident report from the Michigan Sate Police, the car swerved to the left, then the right, running over the rumble strips on the sides of the road. Then it swerved left again — but didn’t stay on the road.

Cai remembers the vehicle flying off the road, crashing into a tree and the moment she went unconscious. When she woke, she didn’t know her arm was broken or her neck was fractured in four places. Her attention was focused on the front seat. There, in the driver’s seat, not moving, was Ran Xu, Cai’s friend and former schoolmate from China. Now, she did not respond as Cai and the two other passengers in the backseat frantically called her name.

Trapped in the wreckage, Cai had to wait for the Michigan State Police to arrive at the scene to be removed from the vehicle. She was transported to St. Mary’s of Michigan Standish Hospital, where she was told Xu and the other front seat passenger, Zhangqin Xie, had died.

Cai remembers Xu as a bright student, full of potential.

“She is very talented and really organized, she knows (what) she wants to do,” Cai said. “She really is a hardworking girl.”

Michigan State Police, which handled the investigation, narrowed the cause of the accident down to driver error, Michigan State Police Sgt. R. Taylor said. But why Xu lost control of the car will never be known. Her parents did not request an autopsy.

In America

Through MSU’s Confucius Institute, which works to spread Chinese language and education, Cai came to teach at Lansing’s Post Oak Elementary in September and formed a bond with the students there, Post Oak Principal Camela Diaz said.

“For elementary children, they really look up to and admire their teachers,” Diaz said. “They miss Linling.”

When parents and students at Post Oak were informed of Cai’s accident, they were shocked. And then they mobilized. Diaz donated a sturdy mattress and box spring to give Cai proper support while recovering. Students flooded Cai’s hospital room with brightly decorated cards, many containing Cai’s name carefully written in complicated Chinese characters, wishing her well in her native language.

“We are ultimately a family,” Diaz said. “When someone in the family is hurt, … you just pull together because you’re family.”

The Confuscius Institute ensured Cai had visitors every day of her hospital stay. But the biggest gift it gave Cai was her mother, Ling Hong.

Across an ocean in Lianyungang, China, Hong saw pictures of the car twisted around a tree, only able to imagine her daughter — she had neither a passport or a visa to travel to America. The program worked to secure both a passport and visa for Hong, and in a week and a half the mother and daughter were reunited.

“I don’t want to make the moment we met so sad,” Cai said, “But my mom cried so I cannot help crying. We are so happy to see each other.”

When Hong first saw her daughter, she was startled by the neck brace and cast, but when she heard about the numerous people who helped her daughter, she was reassured.

“At first, she worried — she was so worried,” Cai said, translating her mother’s Mandarin Chinese. “When (Hong) got to know that so many people offered help, she calmed down and felt better because she knew that her daughter was not alone.”

Future

From appearance alone, Cai doesn’t look like the survivor of a fatal car crash. There are no cuts and bruises on her face, her long brown hair falls past her shoulders. Her neck brace will be gone in a few months and the only other outward sign is the missing tooth, the single flaw in a large white smile that accompanies her frequent laughter. The accident still is with her, though. She can’t carry her own laundry or chop vegetables and even showering is difficult. At night, images of the crash still taunt her in her sleep. She wakes up screaming.

But then she sees her mother sleeping on the bed next to hers and she instantly feels comforted. She’s reminded of the strangers who have become her friends and feels deeply grateful to have them. And she’s felt the need to keep the spirit of giving alive.

“When they give me so much love and care in such a kind of situation, when I recover I just want to continue this kind of love,” Cai said.