Elizabeth Lu Chow

Elizabeth Chow, known to her loved ones as Aunt Liz, Si Yi, or Yipopo, was born on December 11, 1926, to a big, loving family in a beautiful home with lush gardens on the bank of the Yangtze river. She had six siblings, and they were named alphabetically - Alexander, Bernice, Catherine, Daisy, Elizabeth, Frances, and Grace. She had a happy childhood, and an adolescence and early adulthood marked by war. Her family’s home was seized by the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese war for use as their headquarters. She was sent away to boarding school in Chengdu with her sister Daisy and a dog named “Hoovey” (named after president Hoover). There, she met Mr. Ralph Chen, whom she followed to Macau, Hong Kong, and then California. She studied music at GinLing College.

Elizabeth lived a colorful life and was married three times. She and her high school sweetheart Ralph were married in their early 20’s. Ralph came to the United States for a master's degree in 1950, then worked as an aerospace engineer. Five years later, when Elizabeth met him in Los Angeles, he left her for his mistress. That was her dark time for Elizabeth as her heart was broken by her “soulmate." Her beloved cousin Yuanyin and her family in Philadelphia took Elizabeth to her house and comforted her as she recovered and tried to reenvision her life.

In the early 1960s, Elizabeth met and married Dr. T.T. Chen. T.T. was 20 years her senior, a prominent protozoologist and cancer researcher at The University of Southern California (USC). T.T. loved her very much and took good care of her. With him, she was a society wife who attended galas in glittering gowns in the evenings and a top student earning a master of computer science at UCLA during the day, the only woman in her class and a top student. But after only 5 years of a happy life with T.T., T.T. suffered a major stroke at age 65 and passed away when he turned 70. In those 5 years, Elizabeth worked tirelessly as his caregiver while completing and publishing T.T. Chen's book, Research in Protozoology vol. 4. The book has been reprinted 78 times.

Just as Elizabeth made up her mind that she would not marry again, Mr. T.K. Chow appeared in front of her. He was an engineer at IBM, the same age as her, and they had a common interest in music. She was a fine pianist and he was a tenor with a powerful voice. Their marriage lasted more than 30 years until T.K. passed away in Tucson, Arizona in 2011. In the last 10 years of T.K.'s life, he suffered from various cancers, but she supported him until the last minute.

Elizabeth moved to Richmond in 2012 at age 85 and lived with her niece Ning and her husband Ping and daughter Bernice. In those 10 years, she made many friends, and enjoyed telling her stories, and painting ceramics, making jewelry, and teaching and sharing art with her family and friends.

Elizabeth passed away peacefully on October 29th, 2022 in the Westmont Short Pump Assisted Living Facility in Richmond, Virginia. She will always be loved and cherished. May she be blessed and rest in peace.

For more of Elizabeth's story, please follow this link: https://memroars.wordpress.com/2022/11/06/my-great-aunt-elizabeth-part-2-yipopos-story/

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