Nicey Ricey

John Sue, Linda Sue, Henry Owyoung, Helen Owyoung, Ed Sue, Amy Sue and Jon Sue. 4/18/09

So here’s the family cemetery out in Colma. That stone marks the location of Henry and Alice Sues’ final resting place. They earned their place here as this cemetery is for all those who came from our village in China, most of whom braved a dangerous and uncertain passage to the Golden Mountain.

To think that so many of them left the homeland with just the shirts on their backs and risked life in a place where they’d be third-class citizens is mind boggling. What did they have to look forward to? Dynamiting tunnels in the mountains? Folding laundry? Dirty, hard labor? Life must have truly sucked in China for them to leave everything behind.

Henry Owyoung contemplates a greasy pork lunch.

So if you’re ever feeling sorry for yourself, try imagining leaving all that you know, sneaking across the Mexican border (of course spending a pre-border-jumping slumber party and round of golf at Aunty Glady and Uncle Murrays’ in San Diego), stowing away in a banana ship across the Pacific, then working your way back into China to earn a meager existence as an illegal alien.

Ed Sue at Lum Tom's (Uncle Tom) grave.

And if you find that you don’t like being in their shoes, never fear, just click your heals three times and say, “there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home” over and over, and soon you’ll find yourself back atop the Golden Mountain.

Then, the next time you have the chance to go to Ching Ming, make sure to bow three times at every stone. Pray for their peace and comfort. And thank them for setting us up for a life of prosperity, tranquility and utopian happiness… then go elbow your way through the crowd and get yourself one of them greasy roast pork lunches…