Chin-Su (A-gong) and I-Mei (A-ma) were born and raised in the village of Ho-Long ("Rear Dragon") of Miao-Li county in northern Taiwan. The Huang family had a small business of retail fruit stands by the railroad station there. A-gong had a vision of expanding the life horizons for himself and his family, so he and A-ma emigrated to Taichung -- with almost nothing -- in early 1940. His vision and perseverence influenced his children for many years to come.
When they arrived in Taichung, A-gong's good friend (a "sworn brother") lent him a bicycle to start their new life. Times were tough then, and both had to work together to earn a living.
A-gong and A-ma had seven children: Steve, Cliff, Matthew, Chia-Hui, Lishun, and Claudio. A second daughter born between Chia-Hui and Lishun passed away when she was 2 years old. A-gong had a banana business where he invented a special process that would keep the bananas fresh until they would ripen right at the moment of delivery. All the kids would help collect the bananas and take them to the market. Uncle Claudio said two kids would carry a stick of bananas, but dad would show off and carry one all by himself. A-gong's formal education was cut short with the untimely death of his own father. However, he later taught himself how to read and write, even winning Chinese calligraphy competitions later in life.
When Matthew was only 3 or 4 years old, he was often placed and stood in a shallow, dry ditch in front of the house (when A-gong and A-ma were busy, because the ditch served a babysitting purpose). From the ditch, he watched American and Japanese warplanes dogfighting in the sky.
A-gong and dad ran in the Ford family fun run (4 miles) in the 1980s -- A-gong was interviewed on the Michigan news because he was the oldest man to run in the race. I believe he was in his 70s.
Uncle Claudio said A-gong and A-ma truly had vision when they left their home village of Miao-Li. Their spirit of perseverance runs in the blood of all of us. We are forever grateful for their endeavors.
Chin-Su Huang (born: May 10, 1913 died: November 25, 1998)
I-Mei (born: September 25, 1914)
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In one of the weekend in late November of 1998, I was preparing my cross country trip to Ithaca, NY, to visit Lily (we were dating at that time). Since A-going’s hospital is on my way home, I have this feeling that I should go see him before I leave for the weekend.
ReplyDeleteThere were no other patients roomed with A-going and the nurses were busy with their work when I stand next to grandpa. What went through my mind at that time was that he looked skinner than before. Me and Jack used to spent the summer vacation at A-going/A-ma’s place in Taichung when we were kids. I always thought that A-going is one big man that will never fall but the giant from my childhood seems to be so different now. I pushed his thin grey hair back and rubbing the flat spot on his thumb nail. Grandpa always said that the kids in the Huang family has a flat spot on our thumbs and all the sudden as I was touching his hand the memory of him holding me and force feed me medication (I got sick a lot when I was little and I hate taking my medicine; fruit flavored medicine was not popular and expensive when I was little). Yup, that is my grandpa alright.
That Sunday when I got back from NY, I got several messages in my answer machine from my dad and aunt Lishun that A-going passed away while I was away.
I don’t know if he ever knew that I was there next to him that sunny afternoon in the hospital since he had been in coma for a while, but I am glad that I was there, even thought it was short.