Our beloved mom Fay Wah died on Saturday, June 13, 2026, due to complications related to dementia and a broken left hip from a fall on October 7, 2025. She had hip replacement surgery that same night, which miraculously went well. She was on the mend until she fell again in February. She was fine at first but developed increasing pain over the next three weeks. An x-ray revealed that her new hip was dislocated. The emergency room doctor manipulated it back into place, but she dislocated it again in early May for unknown reasons. This time, the ER doctor couldn’t put it back. Surgery was considered but given her age and the likelihood that her hip would dislocate again, we decided that the kindest thing was to let her go. She went into hospice, received good pain management, and slipped away peacefully with family at her side till the end.

Born on October 26, 1930, Mom lived to be 95 years old. We held a private graveside service for seven family members on June 22, 2026, at Evergreen Cemetery in Priest River, Idaho. She was laid to rest next to our dear father Albert Wah, who died November 17, 2004. It was a glorious, sunny day which the gardener in both of our parents would have appreciated.

After Dad died, Mom lived with Diane, her husband, and her son for six months. By June 2005, she was ready to return to Priest River and plant a garden like she and Dad had done every spring for over 60 years. She was able to live alone there for another 12 years because of the kindness and support of many friends and townspeople. On July 3, 2017, at age 86, we moved her to Seattle to be near Jennifer and Diane. She was at Northaven Independent Living from July 2017 to April 2021. As her needs grew, she moved to Northaven Assisted Living (April 2021 to September 2024); Queen Anne Manor memory care (September 2024 to October 2025, during which time spinal stenosis put Mom in a wheelchair); and finally, Kline Galland Home for skilled nursing, memory care, and hospice (October 2025 to June 2026). These changes were especially hard because of her dementia, but she adjusted and settled in.

What stands out the most for us about Mom is her resilience and positive outlook. Besides making these moves late in life, losing Dad 22 years ago after 57 years of marriage, being uprooted from Priest River after calling it home for 60+ years, and surviving a broken hip and surgery, she prevailed through many other traumas in her life. A sickly child, she nearly died of an undiagnosed illness as a one-year-old in China. During the Japanese invasion of China (1937-1945), she, her younger sister, and our grandma would often have to run and hide from Japanese soldiers who ransacked their village and worse. The girls regularly faced this terror alone as their mom was forced to leave home to sell possessions across the countryside to generate money for food.

In 1947, just two years after World War II ended, Mom at age 16 married Dad after knowing him only a month. It meant a much better life for her in the US than a life of continuing hardship and bad memories in post-war China. Like many US servicemen of Chinese descent after WW2, Dad went back to China, a country he’d left at age nine, to find a wife. The 1943 repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited Chinese immigration since 1882 with few exceptions, made marriage and starting a family in the US possible for Dad (interracial marriage was illegal in many states). When they sailed to the US a few months later, Mom didn’t know if she’d ever see her mom and sister again; nor did she know the language and customs of her new country.

Mom and Dad first lived with our dad’s sister Lily Eng, her husband Don, and their children Helen and Dickie (Richard) in Newport, Washington. Dad worked in their café until he and Mom decided to strike out on their own. They moved seven miles away to Priest River and re-opened the defunct Pend d’Oreille Café, which they regrew into a local mainstay. In 1950, Mom nearly died giving birth to Jennifer, gave birth to Marcus 14 months later, then had another prolonged hospital stay after giving birth to Diane three years after Marcus.

After years of struggle, poverty, and long hours that Dad worked (12 hours a day, 6 days a week), they took out a bank loan and had the house of their dreams built in 1961. The next year, President John F. Kennedy ended immigration quotas based on national origin. This permitted thousands of Chinese refugees, including Mom’s mom and sister, to flee mainland China and immigrate via Hong Kong. Dad and Mom, who earned her US citizenship in the late 1950s, sponsored her mother, and Mom’s sister’s husband’s family sponsored her. It took 15 years for this second dream to come true for Mom. Mom’s mother reunited with her husband in New York City after living a year with our family. He had left his family in China some 20+ years earlier to work in the US, sending money to them until the war started in China. Mom’s sister and her husband moved to NYC after living and working in Wenatchee for a year or so in his father’s restaurant.

Our family café burned down in 1963. With a home mortgage ($108 a month!), a family to support, and an inadequate insurance payout for rebuilding the business, the outlook was bleak. Our Aunt Lily kindly hired Dad as a cook again, this time in her new restaurant in Newport, where he worked until he got a job at Diamond International lumber mill (formerly Diamond Match). In retrospect, the mill job was a turning point for our whole family. For the first time, Dad had a steady job, paid vacation and sick leave, and regular 8-hour workdays thanks to his labor union. With this came decades of stability and fewer worries which lasted the rest of his and Mom’s years. Mom added to this stability by waiting tables in our café and our Aunt Lily’s restaurant, and later by cooking at the Dew Drop Inn, the Priest River Elementary School, and the Priest River Senior Center.

Throughout her life, Mom never lost her sweetness, love of people (especially babies and young children), and sense of humor, even when dementia and aging robbed Mom of her memories. Mom was well liked—loved—by many in her years in Seattle. Staff at her last home, Kline Galland, often greeted her with a big smile, exclaimed “FayFay!,” and asked about her day—even staff who didn’t work in her area. She almost always waved and smiled at strangers and familiar faces alike. She’d even pat the bottoms of unsuspecting employees with a glint in her eye as she rolled by in her wheelchair. Even in her last weeks, she brought joy to the people around her.

Either Jennifer or Diane saw our mom every day. Often, both of them saw her on any given day. They took her on walks and adventures as long as she was able. Marcus and others visited when they could. Though we miss her dearly and are saddened by the losses she endured, we feel some peace that she enjoyed a full, happy life with our dad and, later, her best life under her compromised circumstances.

Friends and family meant everything to our mom Fay. We thank you for the love and attention you gave her. You made all of our lives richer. She is survived by daughter Jennifer, son Marcus (Kitty Chung), daughter Diane (Hal Blumberg), and grandkids Annette Wah and Joshua Wah-Blumberg.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to one or both not-for-profit communities with a note “In loving memory of Fay Wah”:

Northaven Senior Living, 11045 8th Ave NE, Seattle, Washington 98125. Or donate online at https://www.northavenseniorliving.org

Kline Galland Campus at Seward Park, 7500 Seward Park Ave, Seattle, Washington 98118. Or donate online at https://www.klinegalland.org