More than one thousand Beijingers, including many medical workers, attended a funeral in Beijing Thursday, paying their last respect to Wang Jing, a nurse who died at her post in the front-line fight against SARS.

The deceased smiled lightly in her portrait, as affable as she used to be when treating SARS patients. However, the smile will be frozen in the picture for forever.

At the beginning of April when the epidemic overwhelmed the capital, the 36-year-old nurse from Beijing People's Hospital attached to Beijing University volunteered to work in the front line to take care of SARS patients.

Unfortunately, she contracted the disease on April 17 and died in the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital on May 27 after 40 days of tenaciously struggling against SARS.

Zeng Li, Wang's colleague and former schoolmate, recalled that Wang refused to allow other nurses to take care of her after she contracted SARS as she worried about cross contamination.

"She asked us to put medicine on the table and insisted she take them by herself. She always thought more of others than herself," Wang said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2003)