Making a contribution to the world before leaving it (#146; Topic D)

This afternoon, I attended a memorial service for a lady, a fellow vice president of a local organization serving seniors of Chinese ancestry. In 1944, while a freshman at Xiamen University, with the Japanese closing in on Chongqing 重庆, China's wartime capital, she decided to leave school to join the army, responding gallantly to the following recruitment ad (in couplet):
一寸山河一滴血，
十萬青年十萬兵。
An inch of the motherland is a drop of blood,
A hundred thousand youths equal a hundred thousand soldiers.
Her enthusiasm did not turn out well; she later returned to Xiamen University and completed her studies, graduating in 1948 with a BS in chemistry. Moving first to Taiwan and later to USA, she earned an MS from U of Maryland and worked at the National Institute of Health until retirement. Realizing that she was more fortunate than most of her former classmates in China, she was generous in sending money to relieve their unexpected medical or other needs (a heart bypass, a knee replacement, etc.) Indeed, one of the many moving accounts this afternoon was by the son of one of her former classmates -- visiting the former classmate on his deathbed in China, she promised that she would sponsor any of his children to USA to study. This promise she delivered, and his young man, perhaps in his late 40s by now, came to USA to study in 1984 -- and flew in from San Diego today to attend the memorial service. Another speaker talked movingly of the unselfish service our deceased rendered, in her capacity as the director of sightseeing for another organization serving retirees of Chinese ancestry, over the last 15 years. During this memorial service, I kept asking myself: What contribution have I made to the community? Indeed, Confucius has said, unequivocally: A gentleman would regret for not making a contribution for which his name may be remembered beyond his life time (15.20, my translation). A most sobering thought.