This drawing created by Ji Enyou, a third-grader in northeast China's Liaoning Province, shows his mother, a nurse, rushing to plane bound for Wuhan on Feb. 8. 2020. (Photo provided to Xinhua)

 
On the ground of a hotel parking lot, Ji Enyou spread out his drawings for the viewer on one of the hotel balconies. On the balcony, a woman waved, smiling in tears.

Nine-year-old Ji is a third-grader in northeast China's Liaoning Province. The collection he had drawn was a surprise gift for his mother Zhou Meiduo, a head nurse from the Fushun City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine who had been assigned to the former epicenter of Wuhan hit by the novel coronavirus.

As the epidemic has been basically contained in Wuhan, where no indigenous confirmed cases of COVID-19 was reported on Saturday, tens of thousands of medics sent there to help treat the infected patients are now heading home.

After Zhou left in early February, Ji often stared at the family photo hung at the entrance of his home, sometimes touching the image of Zhou with his little fingers, according to Ji Lexin, his father.

"He was reluctant to admit that he missed his mother. But I often heard him calling 'mom' in his dreams at night," said the senior Ji, who then encouraged the boy to draw his mother on paper.

With the help of his father, the boy created one drawing each week, with the inspirations either from the photos Zhou had sent or what she had described over the phone.

Under his pen, he has drawn Zhou in uniform rushing to a plane, taking care of patients and guiding the patients to exercise. He also made a sketch of Zhou's work pass at the Leishenshan Hospital, a makeshift medical facility built in less than two weeks, where Zhou was on duty.

On his ninth birthday on Feb. 14, Ji wrote his birthday wish on one of his works --"I hope the epidemic is defeated soon so that my mom will return."

On March 21, when many medics had returned from Wuhan, Ji felt disappointed as he learned another 29 new patients were put under his mother's care.

He then wrote "29" as the hospital bed number in his drawing. He also asked his father what a normal electrocardiograph (ECG) looked like before drawing an ECG chart on the equipment behind his mother on paper.

"Only if the patients recovered would my mother accomplish her job and return home," he said.

Ji's father, a doctor, said his wife decided to postpone their wedding 17 years ago when he was assigned to Beijing to join in the treatment of SARS patients.

"Now it's my turn to be supportive," he said, adding that no matter how busy he was, he would spare time helping his son with the drawings.

In his latest work, the junior Ji drew the family of the three, with "welcome home" written on the T-shirts of him and his father. On the other side of the drawing was an airplane receiving a water-cannon salute, which he was told was a top honor to show the deepest gratitude to the returned medics.

He said his mother deserved the honor.

Ji's mother Zhou has to wait for another 14 days for quarantined observation before she is able to hug his son.

"I'm sorry I wasn't around on your birthday. I promise I'll buy you a birthday present and take you to fly a kite," she said over the phone.