Tsung-Mei Chung Lin

Our mother, Mrs. Tsung-Mei Lin, was born on, according to lunar calendar, February 28, 1928 in Huang Xian of Shandong Province in China. She was the second child in the family. She had one older sister, two younger brothers and two younger sisters. When she was little, her parents moved the family to City of Tsing-Dao. So, she grew up in Tsing-Dao and graduated from the Tsing-Dao Girls High School. After that, she worked as a nurse. In 1946, she was married to my father, Mr. Ho-Ting Lin. In 1947, she gave birth to our older brother, Richard Lin Lin. From that point on, she started her full-time job that went on for decades to serve as a homemaker and to raise her 5 children. During the China revolution in 1949, my father followed Chiang Kai-Shek and brought his small family to Taiwan through Shanghai and Dachen Islands. While transiting through Shanghai, my mom gave birth to my eldest sister, Wei Lin. After getting to Taiwan, my mom gave birth to my second elder sister, May Lin, and myself, James Lin. In 1957, our whole family moved to the Green Lake area of Hsin-Dian. Soon after that, my mother gave birth to our youngest brother, Michael Lynn.

Although the income from my father’s military job was extremely modest, through her frugal, clever, and superb management, my mom was able to keep all of us adequately fed and clothed. I still remember that, every Sunday night, the whole family always circled around the radio to listen to the soap opera broadcasted through the radio. Although that was the only entertainment our family had, that was a period of very happy family time.

As I recall, when my mom was young, she was very beautiful, gentle, and kind. She never raised her voice to us or scolded us. She had always been kindhearted, caring, and pretty. So, we grew up under my mom’s attentive lovingkindness. My eldest sister, Wei, moved to Japan after she got married. In 1972, Wei gave birth to her daughter, Tomoe 祖慧. With her first grandchild, my mom was promoted to the status of grandmom. In 1974, she had her first grandson, Tomotaka 祖燿.

After my father passed away toward the end of 1974, my mom was very sad, heartbroken, and devastated. At the time, both of my sisters were already living overseas after they got married. Through the care and support of my brothers and myself, my mom slowly came out of her grieving and pain.

In 1975, on my behalf, my mom went to attend the scholarship award ceremony of the Shandong Hometown Association. When she was accepting the award on my behalf, the gentleman presenting the award told her that she looked just like a college student. She was really filled with joy that day. In 1976, both my mom and my older brother traveled to Hsinchu to attend my college graduation ceremony. She was truly happy that her child achieved this education milestone.

In 1978, my sister-in-law Amigo, wife of my older brother Richard, gave birth to her first son, George建仲, and my mom had her first grandson with the last name of LIN. In 1980, my second elder sister, May, gave birth to her son, Victor維孝, and my older brother’s wife Amigo also gave birth to her second son, Jack建安. Later, my mom had four more grandchildren, Patricia 維芳, Michelle 伯妮, Norman 伯謙, and then Matthew林恩.

1982, my mom and my younger brother, Michael, immigrated to the U.S. Three of us live together in Huntington Beach. Being very frugal, I always shopped around before I made the final purchase of any furniture. At that time, my mom was the one who accompanied me going from store to store to compare price and furniture. No matter how tired or hungry she was, she never complained. Because of her love for her children, she was always willing to work very hard and go through any kind of hardships.

Since moving to the U.S., she was living with me until 1991. Being afraid that I could not meet a girl willing to marry me, she decided on her own to move to Michael’s house in the U.S., living by herself. In late 1995 through 1996, when I was in the midst of a long, serious illness, she was also helping my wife to steam-cook chicken soup for me. Even for my entire next life, I can never re-pay her love for us.

Time flies. Many years have gone by. My mom was getting older every day. From 2015 through 2016, we had part-time care giver to come to mom’s place to help my mother. In December 2016, we hired the first full-time caregiver to take care of mom’s daily life. In June 2017, we got a new caregiver who was originally from the City of Tsing-Dao. She was good at cooking northern China food which matched very well to my mom’s taste. In 2018, Michael bought a house in a very convenient, upscale area of Taipei. So, he relocated mom to Taipei to enjoy the life in Taiwan. Right before the 2019 Mother’s Day, Michael brough mom back to the U.S. for a short stay. On the Mother’s Day that year, I invited mom to our house for dinner. That was the last time my wife and I had the chance to have meal together with her. Originally, I was scheduled to visit mom in Taipei in late February 2020. In the end, I did not make it because of the pandemics and being a high risk myself. That was a huge regret in my life. Since that time, the condition of my mom’s dementia became more severe by the day. Afterwards, mom’s physical response during my video calls to her was getting significantly less and less. Fortunately, mom had been well taken care of by the very caring caregiver Wati.

September last year, 2021, Michael and Wati brought mom back to the U.S. and, since then, had been living in my second sister’s home in San Diego. At the beginning, Wati could take mom in the wheelchair and walk around the neighborhood every day. Later, they could only walk around the yard in wheelchair. Then, just walkaround inside the house. Finally, mom didn’t even have the energy to get into the wheelchair from her bed. Mother’s appetite was also getting worse and worse.

On Thursday, July 28, when I went to visit mom, she still looked fine, and she ate that day. In the evening when I was ready to leave, Wati whisper to mom that I was going home and would come back to visit her. She responded with “En.” On Friday, July 29, Michael called and told me that mom’s condition has changed significantly. When I got to San Diego in the afternoon, I learned that she had not been eating or drinking. There had been a rattling sound when she breathed. It appeared that the fluid in her respiratory track and lung could no longer be discharged by her body. And, in every breathe she took, there was a 15 to 30 seconds of breathing pause. After examination by the hospice nurse sometime after 6 P.M. in early evening, we were told that she had reached her final days or hours. On Saturday, July 30, her breathing had loud rattling sound with pause between every breathe. Her blood pressure and oxygen had dropped significantly. Her heart rate had increased quite a bit. She couldn’t drink. Wati could only use sponge on a stick to dip in the water and rinse her lips, tongue, and inside her mouth. In the morning of Sunday, July 31, her breathing became weaker and weaker. Eventually, her breathing completely stopped around 9:20 in the morning.

Mom had raised 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls. Our older brother passed in 2006. Mom had 6 grandsons and 3 granddaughters. One of the grandsons passed away in 2012. Also, mom had 2 great grandsons and 8 great granddaughters. Although mom’s physical body has left us, her love for us will remain in our heart forever. We want to thank our heavenly father for giving us a wonderful mother. We also want to thank God for protecting and taking care of my mom for 94 long years. I would like to take this opportunity to also thank my older brother, Richard, my older brother’s wife, Amigo, my eldest sister, Wei, my eldest sister’s husband, Fu-Zhao, my second elder sister, May, my second elder sister’s husband, ShinMin, my wife, Josephine, and my younger brother, Michael, for their decades of dedicated love, caring, and help provided to my mother. Finally, I want to say to my mom: We love you and will see again you in heaven.