Grandma Jung – Kwan Shee Lo
To truly understand our mother, this section addresses Mom’s relationship with her own mother, our Grandma Jung – Kwan Shee Lo
Our Grandma Jung was such an important part of her children’s lives, that Uncle John interviewed her at great length, and wrote his first Chinese American history book about her: “Amazing Grace” He renamed the book much later on and his books are available on Amazon.com: John Jung: books, biography, latest update as of this writing Jan 2024. I did some reading, and Jeff had 10 days to contact Amazon. I’m glad that Amazon is keeping Uncle John’s account active, regardless of who gets the royalties.
Please feel free to share Uncle John’s Amazon page with anyone who you think would benefit from his work.
Polk Street
Details about Grandma Jung are in Uncle John’s books. On this page, I will write about Grandma Jung on Polk Street.
From Uncle John’s account, Grandma and Grandpa Jung saved up enough money to move their Chinese Laundry business from Macon to San Francisco, because they wanted their children to meet other Chinese people when they reached marrying age.
Grandma Jung and Mom came out to San Francisco to find a place, to open a Chinese Laundry. They found a place on Polk Street between Washington and Clay. The laundry had full 3 bedroom Victorian flat on the second floor, with a full kitchen, separate dining room, and living room with bay windows overlooking Polk Street.
The laundry business was a way of life for the Jungs. Mom kept working in the family Chinese laundry with Grandma Jung, until they made enough money for Grandpa Jung to leave Macon. I imagine that Mom became much closer to Grandma Jung during this time.
Grandma Jung seemed to reserve her bossiness for upstairs. It is certainly the Southern culture to be nice to strangers and general global culture to be nice to customers in the laundry downstairs.
Grandma Jung used to call Mom “A Thoo” and she called Uncle George “Georgie”.
One time we came to Polk Street, and found Grandma Jung out on the roof of the building outside the back stairs. Grandma Jung was cleaning the roof with a broom, wearing her traditional cone shaped straw hat to shield her from the sun. Mom yelled at Grandma to get off of the roof. I think Grandma was around 65 years old at that time.
I recall a time when I walked in the kitchen, and Grandma was eating a yogurt sandwich. I thought this was very odd. It must have been a hold over from living in Macon.
A Turning Point
As time went by, our family moved to Foster City, and Mom and Auntie Jean moved Grandma Jung and Uncle George to Millbrae to a small single story house in a neighborhood where the ground was also fairly level, so that they no longer had to climb stairs, but were within walking distance to busses, which went to San Francisco. Grandma loved the lemon tree in her backyard.
We kids were old enough to be left unattended. Mom and Auntie Jean took turns visiting and caring for Grandma Jung and Uncle George.
Grandma had to go to dialysis everyday, so her care increased. Mom was gone every other day, sharing the responsibilities with Auntie Jean.
As Grandma’s condition advanced, they moved her to a nursing home. I remember Mom brought us to see Grandma. Grandma knew that her days were numbered. She said that she had to “Take a Number” and that her number had not yet been called. She shared a room with a white haired lady who had no visitors whenever we were there. I smiled at her, and she smiled back.
The inevitable day came when Grandma Jung died. Auntie Jean and Mom were very anxious and busy and also had to care for Uncle George.
After the funeral, Mom was distraught and could not withdraw, because Uncle