Thank you, friends and family, for giving me this opportunity to share memories and reflections on the life of my beloved grandfather, Rev. Phillip Wu. While my speaking skills may not be as good as his were on the pulpit – yet – I know that at least I have his big voice. (You can hear me, right?) My A-gong always expressed the deepest pride in us and I am so proud to be one of his 12 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren who continue his legacy today.
A-gong moved from China to Seattle just a few months after I was born in 1985. He lived with us in a tiny apartment in Stone Way, his bed in the living room. My Auntie Esther slept in the hallway and my parents and I were in the bedroom. Every day while my parents went to school and worked construction jobs or cleaned houses, A-gong took care of me, fed me, and played with me. On sunny days, he would take me out to play on a little patch of grass outside, which happened to be a bus stop – although one day a bus almost ran into us and that was the last time we did that.
My aunts and uncles always say, Lala, A-gong zin xiou li. (grandpa loves you so much) I know it and I feel blessed. While it’s impossible for my mind to recall every joke he told me, every time he comforted me when I was hurt, every lesson about God and life that he taught me deliberately or simply by example – I have always felt his love in my heart.
Perhaps that’s why I chose 1 Corinthians 13 to use for my grandparents’ 60th wedding anniversary program. In it Paul tells us, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs.” I believe this perfectly describes the love A-gong showed throughout his life to his wife, his children, his grandchildren, great grandchildren and friends.
In the past few years, whenever my sister and I would visit my grandparents in the house just down the street, my grandfather would say, “so wonderful to see you!” Even after he lost his ability to speak, he would still smile when we said it to him. Then he would point to one of his many stacks of photo albums and gesture for us look through them. There we were, my sister and I and all of us grandchildren and great grandchildren at age 2, 7, 10, 16...
You know, I just turned 23 last week. When people meet me for the first time, they often compliment me on the strength of my handshake and they’re surprised that it comes from such a small person. I’m convinced I get it from A-gong, who had a surprisingly and almost painfully powerful grip even till the very end – just ask anyone who was at his bedside. But behind the grip is a deep confidence and belief in myself that has carried me far in life and will surely continue to carry me further. And this would not exist without the love and care A-gong showed me throughout his life. I am so thankful that in my first few years, he held my hand. And in his last few hours, I held his.
We will all miss him. We will miss his endless desire to learn. We will miss his insistence on walking backwards down the street to “exercise.” We will miss his wisdom. We will miss his laugh. But I look around and see all of us, especially the 21 of us in the younger generations, and I see our interwoven futures as a close-knit family – our weddings, our children, and our grandchildren – our successes, our setbacks and our perseverance. I see in us the same compassion, strength, and love that he embodied throughout his life. Returning to 1 Corinthians 13, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” His love, and our love for him, lives on in all of us.
