Ms. Eng I Wu

Eng-I (Tsai) Wu passed away peacefully in the early afternoon on Sunday, August 25, 2019, in Burnaby, BC, Canada. Amidst a brilliant sunny afternoon, after enjoying a light lunch with her favourite sashimi and taking a short walk by her residence, Eng-I passed quickly and gracefully while surrounded by some of her closest family members.

Eng-I is survived by her husband, Cheng-Yang Wu, her two sons, Chu Wu (Ruby Tsai) and Ting Wu (Risa Lin), her daughter Ring Sasaki (Manabu Sasaki). She is also survived by 4 grandchildren (Jessica, Patricia, Brandon and Johnathan Wu). In Canada, Eng-I is survived by her brother Oliver Tsai (Ling-Yi), nieces and nephews Ginny (Victor), Charlie, and Jack Tsai (Grace) together with their 9 children.

Eng-I was born in Shuili, Taiwan on March 26, 1937. In her family, she was the 2nd oldest of 7 children and the oldest of 3 daughters. Her husband of 63 years, Cheng-Yang Wu, was at her side when she died. After getting married and giving birth to their 3 children, Eng-I spent 2 years in Japan studying high fashion design, while her husband was pursuing a Masters degree at Kyoto University. Upon graduating and returning to Taiwan, Eng-I taught fashion design in Zhu-San where her husband was a Forestry director.

In 1970, Eng-I brought her three children to Canada as immigrants, joining her husband who had already been studying for a year at UBC for a post graduate degree. After moving to Canada, she transformed herself with grace from a high society lady to a working mother in order to help support her family. Until her retirement in 1990, she worked at UBC Cafeteria in Totem Park Student Residences, and as a seamstress making custom leather apparels for Ralph’s Leather. In 1977, Eng-I and her husband purchased a farm with their 2 friends in Pitt Meadows and started a nursery business to what has become Formosa Nursery. She propagated all of the plants from cuttings with her family, growing acres of blueberry plants, which provide delicious fruit to this day.

Eng-I’s signature characteristics were her cheerful outlook, her enormous generosity and her amazingly beautiful soprano voice. She brought smiles to whoever she met and expressed much gratitude to whoever she was with. She worked tirelessly days in advance and created the most ostentatious meals for many gatherings with friends and at community events. Eng-I was also supportive of her husband’s community involvement and worked behind the scenes on many of his volunteer projects in the Taiwanese-Canadian community. Eng-I loved travelling, visiting many corners of the world with her husband. She had an amazing voice for singing and participated many years in Taiwanese choirs with her husband. She also brought much joy singing Karaoke with her friends in Taiwanese, Mandarin, Hakka, English and Japanese.