The only cloud in this happy home-coming, after eight years of absence, was the illness of her father, who was suffering from consumption.  But even this cloud was lightened by the help and cheer which King Eng was enabled to bring to him.  Miss Sites wrote:  “It is an unspeakable comfort to him to have King Eng with him, while she, with skill and wisdom learned in Philadelphia, attends to all his wants as no other Chinese could.”  Soon after King Eng’s return her father was prostrated with a severe attack of grippe, which in his already weakened state, made his condition almost hopeless.  Even the missionary doctor who attended him had no expectation that he would recover.  “But,” reads a letter from Mrs. Sites, “through the knowledge King Eng had acquired of caring for the sick, and her devotion to her father, with work unfaltering, and prayer unceasing, he was brought back to us.”

For many years Rev. Hue Yong Mi had been planning to build a house, wherein he and his family might live after he was too feeble to preach, and which his family might have if he should be taken from them.  At this time he had laid by enough money to carry out his plan, but his weakness was such that he could have done little, had it not been for the energy and vigour of his wide-awake daughter.  She helped make the plans for the house, and afterward urged forward the building, so that a few months after her return the family moved out of the parsonage into a comfortable little home, built in Chinese style, but with glass windows and board floors.

In addition to the care of her father and the superintendence of the building of the new house, King Eng was kept very busy in the hospital, interpreting for the physicians in the daily clinics, and working among the in-patients.  This experience was invaluable to her at this time in giving her a clearer knowledge of the especial preparation needed in her future work.  She saw and learned much of the prevalent diseases among the women for whom she was preparing herself to work.  She also taught a class of young women medical students, which gave her valuable experience in that line of work.

One of the missionaries has written of the impression she made during this stay in Foochow:  “She was kept very busy in the hospital and her home, but she was always cheerful and helpful.  Her Christian love and natural kindness drew to her the hearts of hundreds of suffering native women, who felt that there was sympathy for them in her every look and touch.  Moreover, the affectionate regard in which she had been held by her missionary associates in Foochow has been vastly increased by her unassuming manner, and the meek and quiet spirit in which she mingled with us in work and prayer through the months.”