Born into poverty, she gave everything — even her body — to help others

"Those who have never known poverty cannot understand its pain and hardship. I want to help my neighbors so they never have to feel the sorrow of having nothing."

Kong Do-yeon, a grandmother who spent her entire life serving others, completed her final act of giving through a body donation.

According to Uiryeong-gun, Kong and her late husband, Park Hyo-jin, were cremated side by side Saturday at Annak Park in Jinju.

Kong passed away in September 2023 at the age of 82. Her family, honoring her wishes, donated her body to the medical school at Gyeongsang National University. Nearly three years passed as her remains were used for medical education and research before the cremation. Her husband, who had died a year earlier, had also donated his body.

Kong spent much of her life in grinding poverty. She moved into her husband's family home — a tent — at 17 and was so destitute she had to beg for food. She worked other people's fields, peddled goods as a traveling vendor and knitted late into the night just to get by.

Once her circumstances improved in her 30s, Kong threw herself into community service. In the early 1970s, at the height of the Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement), she led the village women's association, guiding 30 households in income-generating projects during the agricultural off-season. She spearheaded a rice-conservation campaign that boosted the village's earnings and spent her own money to help install a simple water supply system and improve rooftops. In gratitude, villagers erected a statue at Songsan Elementary School in 1976 and named her "Mother of Love."

In 1985, she purchased 225 square meters of land out of her own pocket and donated it to the county government, playing a decisive role in establishing the Songsan Community Health Clinic for residents who had no access to medical care. For 50 years, she never missed a single year of providing scholarships to students from low-income families, donating to charity drives and supplying rice to those in need — all at her own expense. The cumulative value of her contributions, built up over decades, is said to be beyond calculation.

Past the age of 60, she focused her efforts on serving the elderly. Every year she visited senior welfare facilities and cooked rice-cake soup using rice she had grown herself. She sold scrap paper and empty bottles and passed the proceeds to senior citizens' associations. Even in her 80s, frail and weighing just 35 kilograms, she pulled a handcart to sell foraged greens and salvaged goods, donating the money to those in need.

She received more than 60 commendations from every administration from former President Park Chung-hee to former President Moon Jae-in. In 2020, she was awarded the Pomegranate Order of Civil Merit, a national honor bestowed on those who have made distinguished contributions to public welfare and national development in the fields of politics, economics, society, education or academia.

Kong had decided early on to donate her body after death. A worn service diary she left behind captures the philosophy that sustained her throughout her life. In it she wrote: "Those who have never known poverty cannot understand its pain and hardship. … I want to help my neighbors so they never have to feel the sorrow of having nothing."

News of Kong's death three years ago reached her community only belatedly. Residents mourned her, saying, "A true angel has gone to heaven."

"Kong Do-yeon showed through her life what it means to share with others, and she completed that life with one final act of service," said Oh Tae-wan, the head of Uiryeong-gun. "The unwavering love for her neighbors that she demonstrated is a model of true service that our society must long remember. Together with the people of Uiryeong-gun, we will keep her spirit alive for years to come."