Kam Sheung Cheung 張甄錦嫦

Kam Sheung Cheung (née Yan 甄) was born in a village (水口村) near Hoiping 開平縣, a city in the Guangdong Province of China. She and her younger brother 甄煜棠 were raised primarily by their mother while the father worked abroad in the United States returning for occasional visits. At the age of eighteen, following her marriage to Yau Wai Cheung 張有為 (with whom she would be married for almost seventy years), she started her own family in a village (水南村) near Toisan 台山縣. There she worked as a farmer and raised her four children with her mother-in-law while her husband worked in Hong Kong.

In 1962, she fled the famine in China and reunited with her husband and eldest sons in Hong Kong in search of a better life. She lived in a public housing project 明華大廈 and worked in a factory until 1975 when she immigrated to Vancouver, Canada to be once again reunited with her family under the sponsorship of her eldest son Chik Keung 張植強. Adjusting to a new country was not easy. She took up many jobs to earn a living including planting vegetables and picking fruit, often working early in the morning until late at night. In 1977, together with her daughter and son-in-law, she worked at Laura’s Coffee Shop located in Mount Pleasant as a cook. For over twenty years, she lovingly served up breakfast and lunch including hamburgers, sandwiches and fish and chips to the local workers. Her grandchildren visited her often there, and she would spoil them with fried egg sandwiches, French fries and Orange Crush. She retired in 1999 at the age of seventy-five.

Kam Sheung Cheung was active well into her retirement years helping to care for her many grandchildren. She was an avid gardener and had a luscious backyard garden at her home near Fraser Street where she grew a variety of vegetables including bak choy, gai lan, snow peas, green beans, bitter melon, fuzzy gourds and chayote squash. She enjoyed company and always offered to cook lunch and dinners for her children and grandchildren. The common greeting “sihk jó faahn meih ah?” was the first thing she would say to you, never letting you leave her house without at least a light snack, cookies or a juice pack. She was up-to-date on family affairs and would fill everyone in on the latest gossip. Her living room was decorated by family photos and memories of weddings, birthdays and banquets. Later in life, she enjoyed going out for dim sum, sipping tea and people watching. She cherished visits from her great-grandchildren and enjoyed watching Chinese television shows together with them.

She is described by family members as resilient, patient and hard-working. She knew how to stretch a dollar. Yet she was also generous, soft-spoken and accommodating. She always had a healthy appetite—and a particular fondness for sweets. She remained spry well into her later years when she would be dutifully cared for by her daughter and youngest son. She passed away in Burnaby Hospital with her son and grandson by her side.

Predeceased by her eldest son Chik Keung Cheung 張植強 and husband Yau Wai Cheung 張有為, she will be forever remembered by her daughter Wai Ching 李張惠貞 (Yee Fong 李爾芳), daughter-in-law Pui Fong 張朱佩芳, sons Boon Ching 張本正 (Lai Ping 張譚禮萍) and Chee Fung 張柱鋒, grandchildren Karen (Samuel), William, Peter (Synnie), Julio, Lorena (Lawrence), Chung Wai 頌偉 (Lai Kwan 張梁麗君), Chung Yan 劉張頌欣 (Kin Yip 劉建業), Gloria (Adrian), Cindy, Ashley (David), and Raymond, great-grandchildren Braden, Jared, Adam, Carleigh, Lauren, Elizabeth, Abigail, Tristan, Aria, Cheuk Yin 張焯然, Wing Yee 張潁皚, Antonio and many extended family members.

On March 15, 2021, Kam Sheung Cheung was laid to rest at Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby beside her eldest son, husband, and mother-in-law.

張甄錦嫦太夫人,祖籍廣東省,台山縣,盧溪鄉,水南村人,痛於二零二一年二月二十日在溫哥華本拿比醫院逝世,壽終正寢,享壽百齡。

張甄錦嫦太夫人,一九六二年離鄉赴港,一九七五年往加拿大與家人團聚,當刻生活困難,她不辭勞苦,走向農場,種菜,摘果,朝出晚歸,又曾在餐館廚房幫助女婿與女兒工作二十多年,終日奔走勞碌,盡心盡力,孜孜不倦,畢生為家庭艱苦奮鬥,無私奉獻。

張甄錦嫦太夫人於在三月十五日(下午一時)在海景殯儀館以基督教儀式進行治喪.

孝子 張植強 (媳 張朱佩芳), 張本正 (媳 張譚禮萍), 張柱鋒。 孝女 李張惠貞 (女婿 李爾芳)。

孫男 加裕, 頌偉 (孫媳 張梁麗君), 劍華。 孫女 晶瑩 (孫婿 沈樂華), 頌欣 (孫婿 劉建業), 雅穎 (孫婿 Adrian Pidor), 雅婷, 雅娟 (孫婿 David Le)。 外孫男 李偉廉, 李偉德 (外孫媳 李司徒羡怡)。 外孫女 蔡李順愛 (外孫婿 蔡祝加)。

曾孫男 張焯然。 曾孫女 張潁皚。 外曾孫男 蔡羡明, 蔡羡玟, 蔡羡朗, Tristan, 張文浩。 外曾孫女 蔡嘉莉, 李碧兒, 李穎兒, 李彩兒, Aria。