Sau Mei Chin

Sau Mei Chin was born on February 5, 1931 in a farming village in Toisan County, in the Southeastern part of China. In 1948, when she was seventeen years old, she married our father, Tung Mei Chin, and moved to another village in Toisan. Her very first daughter, Christine, was born a little less than a year later.

In 1953, she and Christine moved to Hong Kong, while her husband was in Seattle, WA, working for the U.S. Naval Shipyards. It wasn’t until 1966 that the two of them immigrated to the United States. Three more children, Richard, Jeanne and Andrew, were born shortly thereafter.

She did a wonderful job doing the lion’s share of raising four children, and she also sporadically worked as a seamstress, at Ang’s Bean Sprout Company, and as a caretaker.

She loved knitting, and became quite an expert at it, spending hours per day making all kinds of wonderful creations, including scarves, blankets, flowers, and her amusing bathroom tissue roll covers. She also enjoyed spending time in the kitchen, preparing traditional Chinese broths, dim sum and her legendary mochi balls, which have always been a big hit at parties.

Family was always the most important thing to her, and she endlessly devoted herself to providing for them, making sure they had enough food, money and other essentials. She always put herself last because she wanted make sure everyone else was happy and comfortable first, for in her mind this was what a good family member should do. She was also very well known for her generosity with family and friends, always insisting on paying the tab at restaurants, and often succeeding in doing so without our knowledge!

We will miss her greatly. We will miss her kindness, generosity, sense of humor and willingness to help in any way possible. May she forever rest in peace.