I remembered the day my grandmother passed, I had thought about how much I missed her braised stuffed tofu. That was how she left an impression on my life and today I am reminded of how many lives my dad has touched in a similar manner from all of the comments from family and friends about how much they missed those delicious dumplings dad made. He definitely put a lot of love, effort, and attention into making those dumplings. Instead of getting grounded meat, he would manually chop up the meat because he thought machine grounded meat was too fine and granular, taking away the tenderness. When it came to frying the dumplings, he would lift up and monitor the bottoms of each dumpling and constantly move the pan so that the browning and crisping was even and perfect through and through. That “extra mile” of attention to detail is the embodiment of his work ethic. He took great pride in constantly making refinement and improvement to whatever task is at hand no matter how menial or low the task was. In Japan they call this the “Shokunin spirit.” He was the embodiment of that spirit and it was something impressive to witness and appreciated by many. This same attention, refinement, and improvement was applied to his entire working career as a container ship's chief engineer and later a general contractor. In all his years working, he never had to advertise or place ads; all his clients were from word-of-mouth referrals. He was so well liked and respected for his work that clients would rather wait until he is available than to find someone else who can quickly complete a job because they trusted his intuition and approach to problem solving. As one can imagine with that kind of work ethic he can be difficult to work with (believe me, I know and I think some of you know too) because no one could measure up to his standards. He was an artisan and craftsman that did everything himself, renovating our homes from top to bottom and it would always seem that no problem was too big or too daunting for him to solve. He was the rock and foundation we have come to rely on time and time again.

In addition to having a strong work ethic, he had an equally strong sense of generosity, care, and selflessness to him through his last days. Last year, he put up ceiling lights in Avery’s and Cassidy’s rooms pushing through and enduring whatever soreness or tiredness the chemo or disease caused him. He continued to work throughout the year and helped clients until his body told him it was enough. Even as he was suffering on his last day, he was concerned about my well-being and wanted me to take his coat to cover up or use as a pillow while we were at his side. That was his way of saying "I love you." The sum of all his actions is the embodiment of the servant spirit. He was not particularly well-spoken, but his actions spoke volumes.

I am very proud of my dad and I am sure Avery and Cassidy are very proud of their “Yeh Yeh”. He brought as much joy into their lives as they did to him. We are all proud of the impact he has left in our lives.

May his spirit rest in peace and be with the Lord.

We are heart broken to lose a most generous and loving friend. May 

Chiman lay in peace under gods grace. We miss you!

Sheau wei & Ichuan