GUANGZHOU - Wang Chichang hopes the public will forget his daughter, but not the way she died more than two months ago.

Two-year-old Wang Yue, nicknamed Yueyue, was ignored by 18 passers-by after she was hit by two vehicles outside a hardware market in Foshan, South China's Guangdong province. Her father said the family was still fighting to make sense of the tragedy.

Two-year-old Yueyue receives treatment in a hospital in Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong province, in October. [Cai Hong / for China Daily]

"The whole family misses Yueyue. But life must go on," the father said.

For some time after the girl's death, Wang could not bear to think about the tragedy, and he turned off his mobile phones and refused questions from the media and the public.

"Please stop talking about Yueyue. But we should not forget how she died. The way to remember her is to give help when a situation like her's happens," he said.

Yueyue's death has changed the migrant worker family's life in a big way, with the closure of Wang's shop in Foshan and his wife and son going back to their hometown, Liaocheng, in East China's Shandong province.

Wang has stayed in Foshan to handle issues related to the girl's death.

The couple were criticized for having closed their Foshan shop, and rumors circulated online that they had taken the donations for the girl's medical care and returned to Wang's hometown in Shandong.

Donations began flooding in shortly after little Yueyue was taken to the hospital - Wang could not confirm the amount the family has received since the tragedy.

In response to the online criticism, Wang has promised to ensure that all of the money donated by the public to cover his daughter's medical bills will go to a worthy use.

"Our hearts will go out to those in situations as terrible as our child's. We will give the money to children and others who really need help," he said in an earlier interview to China Daily.

The family already gave 60,000 yuan ($9,400) to a 25-year-old man with leukemia in Maoming, Guangdong, and 30,000 yuan to an anemic girl in East China's Anhui province.

The tragedy of Yueyue has also changed the life of Chen Xianmei, 58, a garbage collector who was the only person at the scene to help the little girl.

Chen was hailed as a good Samaritan after carrying the girl from the street to the side of the road after the accident and shouted for help from passers-by.

Bewildered by the flood of interview requests from the media, Chen left Foshan for her hometown in mountainous Yangshan county in Qingyuan, Guangdong.

Critics have accused her of helping the girl merely out of a desire for publicity.

"My mother was not fired by her company. She just couldn't bear so many requests and critics from the public," said Chen's son, Tang Xiaobing, in response to rumors that she has been unfairly treated by a company where she worked as a cook before the tragedy.

Chen returned to Foshan a few days ago.

"Her life has been greatly disturbed. But she will go back to work in a few days," Tang said.

Students of University of South China in Hengyang city, Central China's Hunan province, mourn Yueyue's death on Oct 21, by arranging candles in the shape of a heart containing Yueyue's name and age, on the campus. [Cao Zhengping / for China Daily]