Walter Yee Fong Lee 李爾芳

Walter Yee Fong Lee was born in Toisan, a city in the southwest of Guangdong province, China. He was raised there by his mother (Tom Gim) together with his older brother (Tong Fong) and sister (Wai Fong). His father (Yuen Hen) was a labourer overseas in Canada and would send money to the family and make the occasional trips back. Life was hard for Yee Fong and his family during the thirties and forties. Food and money was scarce, especially during the Second World War when correspondence and travel was restricted between Canada and China, and his father could not send money from overseas. Japanese soldiers would also occasionally harass the local villages looking for food and steal supplies. These were difficult but formative years for Yee Fong as he learned never to be wasteful of food or money, a lesson he would carry for the rest of his life.

In 1956, Yee Fong would follow in his father’s footsteps and join him abroad in Vancouver to look for work and search for a better life. He lived in Vancouver’s Chinatown and attended school at Strathcona for English language learners. Work was often hard to come by and he would sometimes travel with his brother Tong Fong (who had arrived in Canada two years earlier) to small towns as far away as Alberta with strange names such as Stettler and Sundre to work in hotels and wash dishes. By the 1960s, however, Yee Fong’s persistence and hard work would begin to pay off. In 1966, he became a business owner when he purchased George’s Grill on West Broadway. He then purchased a house on Dundee Street in Vancouver’s East Side. And in 1967, he sponsored his wife, Wai Ching, whom he had married three years earlier in China, to join him in Canada.

Yee Fong and his wife worked together at George’s Grill for ten more years until 1977 when they closed it and purchased Laura’s Coffee Shop in Mount Pleasant. They successfully operated the new business for over twenty years, serving the local workers breakfast and lunch daily. While his mother-in-law worked the kitchen, and his wife worked front and back, Yee Fong always worked the front of the house taking orders, pouring coffee and collecting the bill. There were dozens of devoted regulars to the restaurant, whom he knew by name, and he’d chat them up discussing the weather, the latest Canucks’ game or the top picks at Hasting’s Park. His customers would call him by the nickname “Wally.”

Wally and his wife worked long hours at the restaurant, waking up at 5am to go to work and returning home at 5pm at night, all the while raising a daughter and two sons. He nevertheless found time for his children, teaching them how to drive, helping out with Chinese school homework, and driving them to the mall or a doctor’s appointment. He was well-educated himself in China and he instilled this value in all three children and each successfully graduated from university.

But Yee Fong also had hobbies when he was not working. He played the violin and read the newspaper from front to back. He played mah jong and enjoyed going to the track at the PNE on weekends. And he took pride in driving his big American-made cars which got bigger as he got older. He started with a Malibu, then moved on to an Oldsmobile and finally ended with a Chevy Impala. He washed them religiously twice a month. He was also very self-sufficient. Whether it was fixing a toilet, repairing a toaster or painting the house, he always refused to hire someone for help and did things himself.

After retirement, Yee Fong travelled extensively with his wife and family. He would fly back to China and visit his old village in Toisan. He took a road trip with the grandkids to Edmonton and Banff, visited Chateau Lake Louise and fought off giant mosquitoes in Blue River. He rode the streetcars in San Francisco and the roller coaster at Universal Studios Hollywood. He ate lobster from Maine but avoided the snails from Quebec City. He walked the rim of the Grand Canyon and sailed the Alaskan cruise. In later years, he enjoyed quieter moments, shopping with his wife, celebrating birthdays, and spending time caring for his many loving grandchildren.

Predeceased by his daughter Sun Yoi 新愛 and brother Tong Fong 頌芳, he will be forever remembered by his devoted wife of fifty-seven years Wai Ching 張惠貞, sister Wai Fong 惠芳, sister-in-law Kit Chan 陳潔, daughter Karen 順愛(Samuel), sons William 偉廉 and Peter 偉德 (Synnie), grandchildren Braden, Jared, Adam, Carleigh, Lauren, Elizabeth, and Abigail and many extended family members.

On September 9, 2021, Walter Yee Fong Lee was laid to rest at Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby.

李公爾芳, 廣東省, 台山縣, 東坑鄉浪波村人. 生於1934年6 月17日.

於1956年從香港移民加拿大, 經營餐館, 克勤克儉, 事業有成.

於1967年與張惠貞女士結為夫婦. 育有二男一女, 現皆長大成材, 成家立室, 家庭幸福, 事業有成, 福有攸歸, 兒孫滿堂.

李公不幸於2021年8月28日逝世, 積閏享壽九十. 親友聞訊, 甚感哀痛惋惜.

喪禮於9月9日在海景墓園舉行, 安葬於海景墳場.

在此多謝各親屬好友送來帛金, 花圈.

謹此至謝並祝賀大家身體健康, 福壽康寧.