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more emancipated, she underwent surgery several times for a uterine tumor, for hemorrhoids, for a gastric ulcer and gallstones, and finally for intestinal obstruction at the age of 79. She was fortunate to come under the care of excellent surgeons Dr. Wah Kwai Chang, Dr. Samuel Yee, and Dr. Livingston Wong. And Dr. Richard Chun treated her for many years for hypertension and a bad heart.
I do not think that Mother had ever worked through her feelings of repeated separations and losses. At the tender age of 16, she became separated from her family by marriage, only visiting once or twice a year, although Kaneohe was only about 12 miles from Honolulu. The death of Grandmother Jong in 1907, the departure of Grandfather for China in 1909, never to return, the gift of Me Yuk to First Paternal Uncle Chan before she could walk, her death at five years of age, and Grandfather Jong's rejection of Mother when he learned that she had embraced Christianity and wrote that he had lost his daughter — all these increased Mother's feelings of loss. When I was growing up, I would sometimes come upon her with tears in her eyes. Although it troubled me, I never thought to ask her the reason and I was too young to understand and to give her comfort. These experiences no doubt coloured her outlook on life, for whenever any of us left home, she would cry and worry unnecessarily. Oddly her fears were often confirmed.
Mother was never pressured by Father to become a Christian. An elderly Chinese Bible woman, whom we addressed as "Fourth Aunt", would visit us in Iwilei, talk with Mother, and teach Ruth and me to sing "Jesus Loves Me, this I know" in Chinese. At Christmas "American" ladies would come by and give us cornucopias filled with candy. We still have a booklet from them, pasted with pictures of Bible stories and a photograph of Central Union Church on its cover. I used to look at the pictures over and over again, and was particularly struck by a picture of a boy lying on the ground and a woman sitting beside him in a prayerful attitude with her face turned towards Heaven. I later learned that it was Ishmael and his mother in the desert after Abraham sent them away.
In 1911 when we moved to our home on Board Road, Mother became acquainted with two staunch Christians, Mrs. C. K. Ai and Mrs. Edwin Cooper, under whose influence she became more enlightened and
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