Sue Lum 蔡瑞愛

Sept. 18, 1917 – Jan. 4, 2020

Sue Lum, devoted wife, loving mother, grandmother, activist, community-builder, and friend was born in Vancouver on Sept. 18, 1917 and passed peacefully at age 102 surrounded by family on January 4, 2020. In a recent email, Mike Harcourt, former Vancouver mayor and BC Premier, wrote, “Sue was able to overcome the racial prejudice that unfortunately existed in Vancouver.” He goes on to say that Sue showed “what model Canadian citizens should be like--hard working, raising a talented family, active in civic life.”

Both her father and her mother died when Sue was young. Sue and her sister, Louise, were raised by their stepfather, Loy Tai Choy, who ran a grocery store where the sisters helped. The Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited Loy Tai Choy from bringing over his wife to assist in raising the girls.

Sue met her future husband, Sun Hor Lum, at the fruit and vegetable wholesale market where both were buying produce. They married in 1937, on Christmas Day, the only day they had off work. Even as they continued to build Sun Hor’s General Produce on 10th Ave. in Point Grey, the young couple could not live in Point Grey because it did not allow Chinese. They ended up living in Strathcona where Sue generously used her bilingual skills to translate, help the Chinese apply for citizenship and encourage them to vote, a right only given to Chinese in 1947.

A grave threat to Sue’s community occurred in the late 1960s when the City expropriated the land of many of Strathcona’s long-time residents and levelled their homes to make way for two public housing projects. The rest of Strathcona was scheduled for demolition. Sue became a founding member of the Strathcona Property Owners and Tenants Association and SPOTA succeeded in stopping the city officials from destroying Chinatown. It became the first citizen organization in Canada to obtain equal power with government in making city planning decisions.

When Sun Hor retired, they moved to Richmond to operate a hobby farm until Sun Hor passed in 1996. Sue stayed fully involved with SPOTA and continued to translate for and help new immigrants obtain citizenship.

The City of Richmond discovered that Sue’s farm was a very valuable bog forest adjacent to the City of Richmond Northeast Bog Forest and its preservation was crucial to the environment. Although the land was potentially worth more as a commercial property, Sue decided to sell the farm to the City of Richmond for preservation. It was named the Sun Hor Lum Conservation Area because Sue did not feel it was necessary to include her name.

Sue had an unfailingly generous spirit, offering help to any in need and never without a gift in hand. Her presence uplifted people and she inspired them to make this world better. Sue is survived by her four children, Arthur, Wade, Leslie and Vicki (Edwin); grandchildren, Darren (Alina), Colin, Dylan, Kyra and Warren; her sister, Louise, and extended family of many nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to:

the SUCCESS Foundation https://successfoundation.ca/

the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation https://www.chinatownfoundation.org/

or Heart and Stroke https://www.heartandstroke.ca/get-involved/donate