When Abbey and I got married in 2002, she already signed a contract to work for a large accounting firm, Deloitte and Touche in NYC. Since Abbey knew some friends from BYU living in the Brooklyn area, they asked around to see who can rent out a space for us newly couple. We looked and looked and Daphne introduced us to an old lady, who's living by herself. At the time, she wasn't particularly looking for a new tenant.
We went to the apartment. It appears that she lives by herself and only living on one side of the 4 bedroom apartment; two bedrooms on one end of the building divided by a living room, dining room, and bathroom, and the other end of the building has the additional two rooms. So we would rent out the two rooms in the back of the apartment. We made one room into a study/living room while the other room is a bedroom. We shared the kitchen and bathroom.
So when we were living there, Abbey was working long hours for the company in downtown Manhattan while Da was studying. At that time, online study was just the beginning so Da managed to pick most of his classes online, except for one, which he has to take in person. So Every Friday night he would take the bus to go back to Maryland for a Saturday morning class and come back Saturday night. During the weekdays, while Da was studying, many times Leung popo would buy Chinese breakfast for Da, after her morning taichi with friends. Foods like chasiu buns, pineapple buns, congee, shrimp crepes, and Da's favorite fried dough, 叉烧包, 菠萝包, 蛋挞, 虾肠, 皮蛋粥, 油炸鬼. Da in turn would help out around the home cleaning/fixing bathrooms, kitchens, patching walls, removing junk from basement, setting up antenna on the roof, and help with anything that popo needed. So it was a win-win for both. During the busy tax season, Abbey would leave the house at 6am until 1am and miss out on all these treats. While living there, during non-tax season, Abbey's working hours were more normal and many times we had a chance to go to the city and enjoy what NYC has to offer. When we came home, we would actually also walk around neighborhoods because so many people were throwing away good working things and we would pick up furniture, chairs, and tables, chairs to furnish the study room. It worked out really well!
So after Abbey worked for Deloitted for one year, Da final finished his degree and we decided to move back to Maryland so we can start building our family, close to where Da's family lives. We purchased a little townhouse in Germantown.
After moving back and starting our family, looking back at older photos, popo actually came to our house in Maryland to see our first child. (We totally forgot about this). We also started a tradition of driving to NYC to visit popo and friends. When the kids were younger and hadn't started school, we visited during the Summer. Once they started school, we found that the long Thanksgiving weekend worked best for our kids' schedule, and also it's not too cold and hasn't started to snow yet. Since then, we've been going back to visit Popo, Diane Kwok, and many NYC friends for the last 20+ years.
We were not able to visit popo and friends in NYC during Covid. We resumed visiting after the pandemic.
Popo's health was deteriorating. We were planning to go visit her and we always call the week ahead that we are coming to visit. She is always excited to hear our phone call. We called her on the day to tell her we're on the way, she said she didn't feel well, so we didn't visit her. We visited Diane Kwok, Nancy Chin, and other friends on Friday and Saturday in Brooklyn.
On Sunday, we went to church with the Yau family in New Jersey. Right before we left NJ, Da got the prompting to call Leung popo again. She was feeling better and was sad to hear we were heading back to Maryland. Da sensed she would like to see us and he turned around and drove back to Brooklyn to see her. An hour later, we arrived at popo's house. Popo was very excited. She asked her social worker to help her dress up and was very alert when she saw us. We can see that her health is taking a toll on her.
Each year we go back, her health worsens. And the last couple times, we left our phone numbers for the caretaker to give to her daughter. On 5/15/2024 3:33PM, we received a text message from her daughter that Leong Wei Yin (Leung popo) had passed away on 5/10/24. Our heart sanked. We were even planning to bring Brennan to visit her when he comes back from BYU in the Summer.
Both of us took the following Monday 5/20 off to go to her funeral services in Brooklyn. We will miss Leung popo and all the memories we made with her.
We went to the apartment. It appears that she lives by herself and only living on one side of the 4 bedroom apartment; two bedrooms on one end of the building divided by a living room, dining room, and bathroom, and the other end of the building has the additional two rooms. So we would rent out the two rooms in the back of the apartment. We made one room into a study/living room while the other room is a bedroom. We shared the kitchen and bathroom.
So when we were living there, Abbey was working long hours for the company in downtown Manhattan while Da was studying. At that time, online study was just the beginning so Da managed to pick most of his classes online, except for one, which he has to take in person. So Every Friday night he would take the bus to go back to Maryland for a Saturday morning class and come back Saturday night. During the weekdays, while Da was studying, many times Leung popo would buy Chinese breakfast for Da, after her morning taichi with friends. Foods like chasiu buns, pineapple buns, congee, shrimp crepes, and Da's favorite fried dough, 叉烧包, 菠萝包, 蛋挞, 虾肠, 皮蛋粥, 油炸鬼. Da in turn would help out around the home cleaning/fixing bathrooms, kitchens, patching walls, removing junk from basement, setting up antenna on the roof, and help with anything that popo needed. So it was a win-win for both. During the busy tax season, Abbey would leave the house at 6am until 1am and miss out on all these treats. While living there, during non-tax season, Abbey's working hours were more normal and many times we had a chance to go to the city and enjoy what NYC has to offer. When we came home, we would actually also walk around neighborhoods because so many people were throwing away good working things and we would pick up furniture, chairs, and tables, chairs to furnish the study room. It worked out really well!
So after Abbey worked for Deloitted for one year, Da final finished his degree and we decided to move back to Maryland so we can start building our family, close to where Da's family lives. We purchased a little townhouse in Germantown.
After moving back and starting our family, looking back at older photos, popo actually came to our house in Maryland to see our first child. (We totally forgot about this). We also started a tradition of driving to NYC to visit popo and friends. When the kids were younger and hadn't started school, we visited during the Summer. Once they started school, we found that the long Thanksgiving weekend worked best for our kids' schedule, and also it's not too cold and hasn't started to snow yet. Since then, we've been going back to visit Popo, Diane Kwok, and many NYC friends for the last 20+ years.
We were not able to visit popo and friends in NYC during Covid. We resumed visiting after the pandemic.
Popo's health was deteriorating. We were planning to go visit her and we always call the week ahead that we are coming to visit. She is always excited to hear our phone call. We called her on the day to tell her we're on the way, she said she didn't feel well, so we didn't visit her. We visited Diane Kwok, Nancy Chin, and other friends on Friday and Saturday in Brooklyn.
On Sunday, we went to church with the Yau family in New Jersey. Right before we left NJ, Da got the prompting to call Leung popo again. She was feeling better and was sad to hear we were heading back to Maryland. Da sensed she would like to see us and he turned around and drove back to Brooklyn to see her. An hour later, we arrived at popo's house. Popo was very excited. She asked her social worker to help her dress up and was very alert when she saw us. We can see that her health is taking a toll on her.
Each year we go back, her health worsens. And the last couple times, we left our phone numbers for the caretaker to give to her daughter. On 5/15/2024 3:33PM, we received a text message from her daughter that Leong Wei Yin (Leung popo) had passed away on 5/10/24. Our heart sanked. We were even planning to bring Brennan to visit her when he comes back from BYU in the Summer.
Both of us took the following Monday 5/20 off to go to her funeral services in Brooklyn. We will miss Leung popo and all the memories we made with her.
