Mommy - My Mother-in-law

In most cases, the daughters-in-law do not get along with their mothers-in-law.
But no so, in my case. I was so lucky that I had the sweetest mother-in-law one could ever ask for. 

My mother-in-law was gentle, soft spoken, and kind. 
Everyone called her Mommy.
She was a cancer survivor. She was also diabetic. I never ever heard a word of complaint from her. She was cheerful and generous.

She had raised her sister's two orphaned children, Wah and Pauline, besides her own three - Mona, Chong (S.C.), and Dum (Brenda).

I was told that Wah and Pauline had lost their mother to some illness. Their father was killed by the Japanese during Japanese Occupation of HK. At some very young ages, they were left orphaned and homeless. My mother-in-law took them in and raised them as her own.

Both Wah and Pauline grew up to become educators. Both married. Later, they and their families immigrated to Canada. Sadly Wah passed away earlier this year at the age of 84.

My mother-in-law, the sweet lady, had not seen her son for some fourteen or fifteen years. 

Then, soon after he went back to HK, he married me. So, she lost her son again in a sense. To me.

Now, we dropped the "bomb" of the news that we wanted to go the U.S. 

She must have felt terrible, but she never said a word.

I am sure that she had hoped that we would be around, and present her with some grand children. 

But if she was disappointed, she did not say a word either.

In the end, I was glad that she did have the chance to see her grand-daughter, our first born, Cynthia, before we left HK.

Our application for immigration to the U.S. took sometime - well over a year.

We had Cynthia, our first child, in May, l959. 

We left HK in August for the States.