Saturday, October 27, 2012

Grandma's edited eulogy ? Epixome

Got up to a eulogy suggestion from Mom (I?m not going to name all the surviving relatives or include the sides or call Uncle Michael?s [old?] boss a ?Jew boss?!), and supportive emails and messages from Harmony / Ryan / Mandy / Vicky / Josh / Olga. Meh, I?ll just type it out here ? whatever. That way, the apostrophes and such will be the way I like them, and I don?t have to deal with Microsoft Word?s versions of those! Well, unless Mom decides to edit it AGAIN in HER copy of Word? I hope not, haha. Also emailed Corey since I kinda forgot to yesterday, oops.

Sau Chun Chow (n?e Lam) was born March 20, 1920 (Feb. 1 on the lunar calendar) in Canton, China, to Heng-Wong Lam and Shun-Ho Lee. She was the eldest of two girls and one boy. Mr. Heng-Wong Lam was a successful contractor, but because he was old-fashioned, he only allowed Sau Chun only four years of elementary school education. Sau Chun married Ob-Lun Chow in 1944. She had one boy and two girls, but the second girl died in infancy.

The Chow family owned farms in Cuba; the tradition was that the men went back to China to have a family. The man left the family in China, and then went back to business in Cuba, only paying the family a visit every ten years or so. In 1949, Ob-Lun left his wife, son, and baby girl when he left for Cuba again. That was also the year when the Communists took over China, and seized the considerable land holdings of the Chow family. Sau Chun took her mother, her younger sister, and two young children to Hong Kong.

During the first ten years of their stay in Hong Kong, the family lived comfortably with money from Cuba, and they were able to hire a servant to look after the family. Sau Chun was very generous and helpful to others; whenever her friends came from China to escape the Communist regime, she would open up her home to them. She would even help them with money until her friends could be on their feet again. Sometimes, her friends would stay for six months to a year, or up to two years. The maid sometimes complained that she had interviewed for a job looking after five people, and she ended up serving ten or more! In 1960, Fidel Castro took over power in Cuba, and Ob-Lun was not able to send money to his family in Hong Kong. Sau Chun was able to renovate the flat into rental units, and she also let her faithful servant go. She then learned to cook and do housework with her mother?s help.

Sau Chun?s son Michael went to work after high school; since he was smart and hard-working, his boss really liked him. In 1969, he married Leslie Au-Yeung, a registered nurse; they were able to take over the family finances. With the help of an influential MP in Hong Kong, Sau Chun?s daughter Kitty was able to obtain immigrant status to Canada in 1970. She finished her university degree and married Alan Ng in 1975. In 1979, Kitty sponsored Sau Chun to come overseas as an immigrant. At first, Sau Chun didn?t like Canada because of the language barrier; Canada also wasn?t as busy as Hong Kong. However, she gradually learned to love Canada because of the beauty of the land, the fresh air, and the environment; she decided to stay for good. Since Kitty and Alan are Christians, Sau Chun also went to church every Sunday with the family. She was baptized on April 3, 1994. In 1983, Ob-Lun passed away in Cuba.

On June 13, 2012, Sau Chun went to Dogwood Lodge, a long-term care home. At the end of July, she was admitted to the VGH emergency room. The family found out that she had a large glioblastoma (GBM) brain tumor. The doctors at VGH gave her one to three months to live, and she was sent back to Dogwood for palliative care. On October 26, 2012, Sau Chun went home to be with the Lord, with her son and daughter at her side. She was able to see her great-grandchildren in her lifetime, and in her last three months, she was cared for by senior home staff and the church community. She felt no pain from her disease, and the senior home staff considered her a model patient. Sau Chun left behind one son, one daughter, their spouses, six grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, one grandson-in-law, and two granddaughters-in-law.

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Source: http://flamsterette.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/grandmas-edited-eulogy/

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