Helen Sun Lu

Helen S. Lu, also known as 孫桃英 (Sun Tao Ying), passed away calmly and quietly on August 9, 2022. She is survived by her three children, Luke, Mary, and Amos; her children-in-law, Betty, Russ, and Jinn-Kang; her grandchildren, Jennifer, Sara, Mark, Skye, A.J., Peter, and Alex; her grandchildren-in-law, Vince, Bryan, Kellilyn, and Sean; her great grandchildren, James, Anne, and Riley; and her many dozens of relatives in China. Her husband pre-deceased her in 1990. Born on March 19, 1928, she was the second youngest child of five. She and her siblings were born in a remote peasant town called 沅陵 (Yuanling), in Hunan province, China, and raised principally by their widowed mother during a challenging period of time. Her upbringing could be considered far below the poverty level for any developed nation, but for the time and region it wasn’t out of the ordinary. She was fortunate to be educated by British missionaries in elementary, middle and high school, as her experience in early adulthood later proved. In her pre-teenage years, the second Japanese invasion of China (which began in 1937) was rapidly advancing through eastern China toward central China and Hunan province. The brutality of the Japanese military toward the civilian population became well understood from the atrocities committed in Nanjing. Our father had already experienced this brutality with the first Japanese invasion and occupation of Manchuria from when he was 6 years old until 20 years old (1931-1945). At 11 or 12 years old (around 1939 or later), our mother directly experienced the realities of war through the repeated Japanese bombing of her town, but her positive outlook on life seemed to be unchanged. Our mother’s teenage years through her early twenties were highlighted by pursuing education (she became a math teacher) and subsequently meeting and falling in love with our father. This was still a very dangerous time as the Sino-Japanese war continued to 1945 and then the Nationalist-Communist war took place from 1945 through 1949. Through a tense set of circumstances that placed our parents in an untenable situation, they decided to separate from China and find their livelihood elsewhere. This was an extraordinarily daunting challenge in that they went to Hong Kong in 1951 without money, a place to stay, or reliable source for food (Photos 1 and 2). In 1952 she was expecting her first child while in Hong Kong ghetto and refugee areas. With no resources to deliver her first child, she miraculously met one of her British missionary teachers from her remote peasant town. The teacher recognized our mother and was able to get her into a British hospital where her first child was born. Our mother never forgot the kindness shown to her, and she would often use this and other examples of kindness to illustrate that to be kind was truly something that people should strive for. 路路克 (Luke) was born November 5th, 1952 in Hong Kong; a British territory at the time 路馬力 (Mary) was born August 3rd, 1954 in Naha, Okinawa; a U.S. controlled territory at the time 路路通 (Amos) was born September 27th, 1955 in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan During and after the birth of their children, our parents strove to provide a future for their new family by working at any job for any amount of money, and then finding a way to engage and work for the United States government while alternately residing in Okinawa and Tokyo, Japan. This led to the opportunity to immigrate to the U.S. in 1961, and receive US citizenship on November 4, 1964. Although our mother was a trained math teacher, this background did not transfer to the U.S. because of her rudimentary English, and thus much like in Japan she worked at any job she could find to supplement our father’s income. She worked at the coffee counter at Peoples’ Drug Store during the midnight shift, and later as a cashier and in the cash management office at Giant Food, Inc., retiring from the latter in 1988. After China opened their doors to the west, our parents traveled to China numerous times from 1979 through the 1980’s. They visited relatives and also gave back to the region they spawned from by establishing educational scholarships for the needy in their hometowns of Yuanling and Shenyang, and by participating as trainers and lecturers in a United Nations program that provided education to the developing China retail industry on U.S. retail businesses operations and practices. There are many lessons and philosophies that we gained from our parents, but two which are most attributable to our mother are: • In any setting presume yourself to be the least intelligent and least knowledgeable. • Never tell people about your accomplishments, let them discover for themselves. Recognizing our mom would never admit to it, we would state that there is nothing that any of us have accomplished or could possibly accomplish that comes anywhere close to the accomplishments of our mother and father. Their perseverance, determination, and energy applied to ensure that their children would have an environment and opportunity to surpass their own conditions is unfathomable. All the while, our mother maintained an absolutely staunch objective of happiness and positive outlook for her and her family. 路路克 Luke Lu 路馬力 Mary Lu Ugone 路路通 Amos Lu