As much as I remember…

Well, I’m back in SF now.

The funeral was as well as one could go I suppose. I can’t say I was very teary-eyed, as I wasn’t as close to him as some of the family and cousins. Some people came up to speak about Grandpa – Joseph, Margaret, Caroline, Liz, Arlinda, and Jopesh, Margaret’s husband.

Since I never spent a lot of time with Grandpa, I found out a couple stories about him, that I never knew before.

During WWII, he was offered a job to spy on his own people by the Japanese. He thought a long time before rejecting the offer, since it was a pretty hard time and money was scarce. But in the end, he thought it was wrong to spy on your own people, and that was the main reason for turning it down. So apparently, a family friend took the job, and was found out, and executed. Apparently the guy that was hiring them was a double agent and ratted the friend out. It was pretty sad since Grandpa knew him and he had a family.

Another story, was from Taiwan, when one night, the family was robbed in the house, and the thief took a lot of money. Later they were caught, and the thief turned out to be a neighbor’s son. Grandpa thought about pressing charges, but if he did, it would mean that the son would be executed. He thought for a long time, and decided not to press charges. The son’s family was poor, and he thought that he was in hard times, and thought that the execution was wrong. Uncle Joseph recalls the son stopping by the house some time later, screaming thru the door (Grandpa didn’t let him in the house) thanking Grandpa for sparing his life.

I also didn’t know that Grandpa was a Jehovah’s Witness. Apparently, he, Grandma and Caroline would go door to door trying to convert people I suppose. Apparently nobody could denied them, since they were super friendly.

He really missed Grandma when she passed. He either wrote, or sang a poem about Grandma, but nobody seemed to be able to remember it, or know if it was written down at all.

Arlinda remembers the abundance of Sunkist, Coke and Juicy Fruit at Grandpa’s house.

Joseph, Margaret’s husband, made a funny remark about how he has to live with the genetic legacy of Grandpa all the time – aka the lengendary Lee stubborness. While at dinner, I asked all the cousins if they thought that they were stubborn, and pretty much all of them were like, “Yeah.” Cassandra added that she thought she was always right all the time too, which I found to be pretty funny, cause I’m exactly the same way. Laff.

Oh yeah, Uncle Robert smokes, is diabetic, is overweight, and doesn’t exercise. I didn’t know that either. Cassandra pretty much chewed him out about that.

That’s about all I can remember at this point.

Also, Mom is too hip, as now she has a lanyard for her iPod Nano.

One thought on “As much as I remember…”

  1. Oh, I totally remember the Juicy Fruit, always around. I did know that he was a JW, but I had no idea that he was trying to convert people. I suppose that is the whole point, but still. Well I’m glad Grandpa lives on in the stubbornness of his grandchildren and perhaps his great grandchildren.

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