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We climbed half-way up Mount Tai, sweltered in Nanking, found Hangchow entrancing, and considered Shanghai too foreign and bustling to be interesting. The great discrepancy between the rich and the poor was evident everywhere. The extreme poverty and degradation of life with no prospect of change for the poor influenced my decision to become a social worker when I left China.
In 1931 Bung Fong returned to the University of Nebraska for graduate work in electrical engineering, but left in 1933 to join me in Canton hoping to find employment there. On a brief visit to Hong Kong he became infected with a "boil" on his chin, and a dentist friend, not realizing it was a carbuncle that gave Bung Fong a toothache, extracted the teeth. This was a disastrous procedure for it spread the infection into the soft tissues, leading to septicemia and his death on 23 November 1933. Antibiotics had not been discovered then, and surgery and medication were not effective. It was a long and agonizing night as I stood vigil by his hospital bed and watched him slowly losing hold of life. The Rev. Chong Jook Ling, who had served in Honolulu, was a great help and support to me in making funeral arrangements and in conducting a service at the Hop Yat Church for Bung Fong before burial in the Christian cemetery in Pokfulam. Some years later, in the 1960s, his brother, Robert Wong, re-interred his remains in Honolulu. Again, like Ruth, a young person with a promising future had died. It left me depressed for several years until I felt he would have wanted me to have a happy life. In reaction, I pursued life with complete abandon the next few years.
In my last year at True Light, I served reluctantly under the new principal, who expressed a condescending attitude toward us American-born Chinese. Inasmuch as Mother was very much worried about my safety when Japan began to rattle her sword, I returned to Honolulu upon fulfilment of my contract. To have a new outlook on life, Mother had built a two-bedroom cottage in Puunui on a lot that I had found for her when I was working for Judge Robinson. This has been our home ever since and it holds many fond memories, especially of Mother who enjoyed this humble abode to the end. I arrived home very much out of touch with what had been going on in the United States. The social programmes, such as the WPA, FERA, CCC, etc. were just alphabets to me at first. It was still difficult to find employment,
178
We climbed half-way up Mount Tai, sweltered in Nanking, found Hangchow entrancing, and considered Shanghai too foreign and bustling to be interesting. The great discrepancy between the rich and the poor was evident everywhere. The extreme poverty and degradation of life with no prospect of change for the poor influenced my decision to become a social worker when I left China.
In 1931 Bung Fong returned to the University of Nebraska for graduate work in electrical engineering, but left in 1933 to join me in Canton hoping to find employment there. On a brief visit to Hong Kong he became infected with a "boil" on his chin, and a dentist friend, not realizing it was a carbuncle that gave Bung Fong a toothache, extracted the teeth. This was a disastrous procedure for it spread the infection into the soft tissues, leading to septicemia and his death on 23 November 1933. Antibiotics had not been discovered then, and surgery and medication were not effective. It was a long and agonizing night as I stood vigil by his hospital bed and watched him slowly losing hold of life. The Rev. Chong Jook Ling, who had served in Honolulu, was a great help and support to me in making funeral arrangements and in conducting a service at the Hop Yat Church for Bung Fong before burial in the Christian cemetery in Pokfulam. Some years later, in the 1960s, his brother, Robert Wong, re-interred his remains in Honolulu. Again, like Ruth, a young person with a promising future had died. It left me depressed for several years until I felt he would have wanted me to have a happy life. In reaction, I pursued life with complete abandon the next few years.
In my last year at True Light, I served reluctantly under the new principal, who expressed a condescending attitude toward us American- born Chinese. Inasmuch as Mother was very much worried about my safety when Japan began to rattle her sword, I returned to Honolulu upon fulfilment of my contract. To have a new outlook on life, Mother had built a two-bedroom cottage in Puunui on a lot that I had found for her when I was working for Judge Robinson. This has been our home ever since and it holds many fond memories, especially of Mother who enjoyed this humble abode to the end. I arrived home very much out of touch with what had been going on in the United States. The social programmes, such as the WPA, FERA, CCC, etc. were just alphabets to me at first. It was still difficult to find employment,
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