Sai was born in Shanghai, China on May 16, 1927 to Yung Hong Loke (father) and Julia (Keng Yee) Loo. She grew up with her family in Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Her family fled from China via boat to India and finally reaching Singapore. She had gone to school in China and Hong Kong. She came to the United States with her mother, Julia, sister, Ling Fai Loke and brother, Michael Loke to attend to school at Park College in Missouri. It was at Park College where she met Yuzuru Takeshita. Yuzuru and Sai moved to Ann Arbor where he went to pursue his advanced degree at University of Michigan.
Yuzuru and Sai married in Ann Arbor Michigan on September 8, 1951 and then daughter, Laura Reiko Takeshita, was born on December 13, 1952. Ann Arbor was each of their homes for most of their lives. They moved to Kobe, Japan in 1956 after their son, Larry Takeshita was born in San Mateo, California on October 1, 1955. In Kobe, Yuzuru was working on his Fulbright and they lived there for about a year. Since she spoke no Japanese, Laura remembers helping her mother with grocery shopping, often translating for her mother.
When they returned to the US, they moved to Los Angeles, California where Yuzuru worked at UCLA as an instructor and then Associate Professor in Sociology. Sai was happy to be a homemaker and mother. They were there until 1962 when they were moved to Taichung, Taiwan where Yuzuru was to conduct a population planning project for two years for the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations and the WHO. It was here that she pursued her love for Japanese flower arrangement (Ikebana) and Chinese painting. She was very talented, having mastered the technique to hold the brushes properly and put the right amount of paint to the paper.
From Taiwan, she and the family moved back to Michigan and the marriage was dissolving. It was now that she had to learn how to manage being a single mom to raise her two children and begin working. She had never worked before and was scared but she went to school to learn how to type and take shorthand. She got her first secretarial position at the University of Michigan, Asian Studies Center. She later joined the School of Education and worked their until she took early retirement due to an injury. It was at the School of Education that she met many students, staff and faculty and kept in touch throughout the years after retirement. She had learned to cook quite well and enjoyed entertaining the students who had no place to go during the holidays. She prided herself on being able to cook Thanksgiving dinner for 25 at her house. She would later spend Thanksgiving dinners with the David and Marguerite Patrick family. She would always bring her cranberry sauce for them and it got to be her trademark dish for everyone to enjoy and look forward to having. She loved going to the Ann Arbor Art Fair every year and while she was still working, she would spend her lunch hours and after work till the Fair closed for the evening. She made lots of friends with the artists and found her favorites she would visit every year. She loved art, jewelry and being around people.
After her retirement, she became more involved with the Unity Church in Ann Arbor as well as the Recreation Center. She took line dancing, exercise classes and enjoyed spending time with those from Church.
In 2017, she moved to Georgia to live with her daughter, Laura. It was a difficult move for her as she had been in Ann Arbor for so many years and she would have to make new friends and find a new social life. She loved being around people so got her to go to the Norcross Senior Center, but there seemed to be something still missing. She moved into the assisted living facility, Sandy Springs Place and stayed there till June 2020 when the doctors strongly suggested she should move home because of the impact the quarantine and sheltering in place took on her health. She moved back in with her daughter and was beginning to get better when her health took a turn and she was under continuous care with hospice when she passed.
She is now with her son Larry, her former husband, Yuzuru, her brother, Michael Loke, her mother and father, and her nephew, Danny To.
She is survived by her only daughter, Laura R. Takeshita, her sister, Ling Fai To, her niece, Jonna K. Heaton and family, her nephew, Vincent To and his family, her nephew, Ivan To, sister in law, Michiko Mukai and family, sister in law Kyoko Sasano and family, brother in law, Ben Takeshita and his wife, Fumiko, other nieces and nephews on the Takeshita side as well has sisters, Ling Kwan, Ling Fong and Ling Man Loke, Ling Fun and Victor Chu and family, and numerous distant cousins.
No services will be held at this time due to the Covid pandemic. She is being cremated through the HM Patterson Oglethorpe Hill Chapel in Brookhaven, Georgia. A memorial service will be held at a later date when we are safe from the Coronavirus.
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