Section C Classmates in Memory

Juliana Shaw Tu
May 3, 2020

Leepo Cheng Yu, my best friend since 1957, passed away on April 28, 2020. Leepo would have been 81 years old on June 25, 2020.

Leepo and I met at Pui Ching Middle School as first-year senior high classmates in 1957. We hit off right away because we left Shanghai and came to Kowloon with our parents fleeing the unrests after 1949, the year the Chinese Communist Party took over mainland China. Leepo came to Hong Kong in 1956, and I in 1952 shortly after the 三反五反. Both of us liked to study hard to be at the top of our class.

Needless to say, we spoke the same dialect, Shanghainese; thus, endearing us to each other all the more. The same dialect, the same cultural background, and the same ambition bonded the two of us so fittingly that we became best friends during our high school years.

Throughout the three years of high school, Leepo was always at the top of the class, and I followed closely behind as the second from the top. Her knowledge in English was way above mine. She had read Jane Austen books and understood the nuances of the conversations between the characters in the writing. Meanwhile, I could not even write a correct sentence in English. There was no way I could compete with her in the subject of English; in all other subjects, we competed neck to neck. It was great to have someone to compete with to keep one's nose to the grindstone. I was called 咪家 in the 1959 Class Book. Now that I reflect upon it, neither one of us developed much in the way of social skills, the street smarts or the art of “give and take”.

Our high school class graduated in 1959. The class was named by school officials as the Class of Light. Leepo and I came to the United States for college. Leepo had a 4-year full scholarship and attended Pomona College in Claremont, California. I attended Georgetown University, a small Methodist college in Georgetown, Texas. My major was pre-med because my parents thought a medical doctor would be the most suitable occupation for females. But, Leepo majored in physics, so I wanted to major in physics also. One year later, I was accepted by Rice University, Houston, TX, with a 4-year full scholarship to major in physics. Once more, I was on par with Leepo, and I felt proud of myself. Leepo and I did not have much contact in college and lost contact in graduate school. I did not know when she received her Ph.D. in Physics. I didn't know who she married or where she worked. I didn't know when her son Albert was born. Her brother, Ta-Pei, wrote about these missing parts in his biography of Leepo.

Leepo and I got back together in the greater Washington DC area in 1974. I had a job interview at the Census Bureau in DC. I located Leepo from the 1959 Class 15th Year Graduation Book. She worked at NIH. After my interview, I went to Leepo’s Lab and waited for her to get off work and pick up Albert at the NIH nursery. Albert was 3 or 4 years old then. Leepo bent down to embrace Albert, lifted him from the ground, talked to him and held him the whole evening. She really loved Albert dearly. I was very much touched by her affectionate motherly love.

After CC and I moved to the DC area, Leepo and Victor got together with us every so often, because we were quite apart in distance. Leepo lived in Rockville, MD, and I in College Park, MD. I fondly remembered that Leepo made chicken broth and brought it to us when I had a bad cold. After one or two years, Leepo and Victor moved to Bethesda, MD, close to NIH. CC and I were looking for a house in another suburb of Maryland. On one Saturday during our house hunting, CC saw an ad about a house in Bethesda for sale. We contacted the sales agent, put a contract on the house; on Sunday, the owner sold the house to us. Leepo and I became neighbors within walking distance! It was miraculous, indeed. Two best friends, having lost contact for 15 years, became neighbors. In those thirty plus years in Bethesda, I appreciated Leepo’s extraordinary generosity, her desire to be at her best in solving problems, and her inclusion of CC and me as part of her family.

Leepo often jokingly said there were two things she never had enough of, time and money. I think the reason for her humor on not having enough money is that she was a big spender on others. For instance, she bought a trendy, high-quality birthday present for Victor's nephew, Alex. Alex was ecstatic, jumping up and down all over the living room. Victor kept on shaking his head, muttering Leepo had spent too much. Another occasion when CC and I went to visit his mother in Toronto, Leepo asked us to buy the best tea for the chief musician in her Beijing Opera. It cost dearly. Leepo always spent big on others. The invisible truth is that Leepo and Victor are very well off and can afford to lavish without a thought. Leepo’s parents moved from Kowloon to reside on Victoria Peak, Hong Kong. I am sure Leepo was wealthy, as her parents must have thought of all the avenues to take care of their 宝宝 and Ta-Pei. To Leepo’s parents, Leepo is forever their 宝宝 which was what I heard her mother called her often.

Leepo’s desire to achieve the best was what caused her to feel she did not have enough time. To consider all possibilities and to look from all angles takes so much time. Leepo would go through all available resources to research the best solution. For instance, she sponsored a relative in mainland China to come to study in the US. I was amazed at the time and effort she spent to research the possibilities for her relative to achieve the best future in the US.

As everyone knows, Leepo had a passion for Beijing Opera, and she was talented in it. As late as the mid-1990s, she still traveled to Hong Kong to take lessons on Beijing Opera. Again, I was amazed. Leepo always strove to achieve the best, which takes a tremendous amount of time and effort. I admired her and tried hard to follow her example.

Last but not least, I am grateful to Leepo and Victor for treating CC and me as part of their family. We were always invited to have gatherings and dinners with them, and with their relatives and friends. When Leepo performed in the DC area, we were given wonderful complimentary seats. We had Thanksgiving Dinner at the Yu’s nearly every year. Leepo’s cooking is the best. Her Chinese dishes are excellent too. Victor loves fish, and Leepo’s fish is out of this world. Leepo was my big sister. She was so big-sisterly that every time her father brought clothing to DC from Jakarta, she gave all of them to me telling me to pick what I wanted. She would take what was left.

Oh, Leepo, I will miss you immensely. Your spirit will always be my aspiration and my guide.

Peter Tong (F4)
May 4, 2020

Leepo and I lived fairly close to each other all these years but to my regret we met rarely in the earlier years. In part, that was because her yearly visits her parents, who were living in HK and at the same time she was busy with her work. While Leepo worked for NIH, Victor worked in New Jersey and came home only on weekends. That also placed a load on their family time.

About her work, I do remember asking her once what type of research work she did at NIH. She said, with a big smile, it was the mechanics of a single muscle in a rabbit. I wonder if her research topic ever changed.

In later years after Victor and Leepo both retired from work, we met much more often. Usually we had dinner together in neighborhood restaurants and enjoy coffee or icecream together afterwards. Leepo liked the restaurants Christine chose and she especially liked Sushi Ko. She mentioned a number of times that we should go there more often. Last March 1, Christine and I invited a few friends home for my birthday. She had to cancel in the last minute because she was coughing badly. When we talked to her later, she felt OK but since the Covid-19 was raging, she thought it would be better that we got together some other time after the virus issue. We emailed each other a few weeks later. Things seemed normal then and I was thinking of checking up on them last week. On the night that SS’s fateful email announcement arrived, I was planning to tell her about the TV series that Christine and I had been watching because it had a Peking Opera background. We thought she might be interested. What a difference a few hours made.

Leepo was always very kind and friendly. When Christine and I were first married, Leepo and Victor invited Christine and me for dinner. That made Christine very happy because she was all new in the area and had very few friends. We are also very happy to be able to attend her 80th birthday celebration last year. On that occasion, she said it was a wonder that she could be there. We knew her health was not the best in the last few years but she always looked very nice when we met. So we were hoping life will continue the way it was forever.

Life will not be the same. Dear Leepo, Christine and I are going to miss you. When the Covid-19 crisis eases, we want to visit Shshi Ko again. Of course, Victor, you are invited.

James Koo A40
May 8, 2020

Victor,

I did not know Leepo while at Pui Ching. Possibly due to similar backgrounds, once met, we quickly felt very close (both Shanghainese, she came to HK in 1956, I, 1957, both interested in science, both came to study in US). Was disappointed you two had to cancel the 2016 reunion the last minute, but enjoyed your visit in HK in 2017. She looked so vibrant then.

By the way, I still remember and was impressed by your talk at Toronto in 1999 about retirement planning and Leepo's performace of Peking opera. That was the very first time I re-joint Lighters after 40 years.

May she rest in peace. The found memory of her will be with me for rest of my life. Take a good care of yourself. Hope to see you in 2012 Taiwan reuion.