I am Daniel Kang Ing, fourth child of six siblings, second son of Hie Sing Ting.
My earliest childhood memory of my beloved mother was that she would stayed up late at night making dresses for someone, often we spent time besides her watching her made the dresses. That’s where I learned how to sew from mom. Mom’s Singer brand sewing machine often became our toy. We used to practise sewing and sometimes we broke the needles. I don’t remember mom ever got mad at us breaking it. She was so patient. The manual sewing machine needs you to paddle with your foot. When I was a boy, I used to paddle her sewing machine really fast just for fun. Her sewing machine was brought all the way from Malaysia and now still sitting in her bedroom. Mom used to make all our pajamas. We used to wear them in the evening played outside till dark and got all sweaty and went to bed with them. We were all very proud to wear pajamas that mom made.
Mom was a good cook. I remember we used to have late night snack with her delicious home fried breaded chicken legs, her stirred fried Foochow noodles, now called Mama’s noodle by the grandchildren, everybody loved it. Fortunately, she had passed on her cooking skills to the next generation. If you come to the Ting’s gatherings, you will most likely taste Mama’s noodle.
When mom came to Canada in 1980, she spoke very little English. Dad was educated in English and mom was educated in Chinese back in Malaysia. The reason she was educated in Chinese was because grandfather was the Chinese school principal. She followed him to every school he taught for free education. Back in the 50’s, the good students were sent to the Chinese schools. Being the top student of the class, she was always ended up in Chinese school. Students who did not do well would end up in English school. Now you know between mom and dad who was better student. Actually, dad was a smart student, he skipped the first few years of school due to the war and still caught up to the grades. Mom was a quick learner. She learned to speak English very quickly in Canada and was able to adapt. Even though she said she could not speak English well, she was able to communicate with everyone what she wanted to say.
Mom was always friendly, kind, smiling, slowed to anger, hard working, patient, loveable and cheerful. Many people said that I am like mom, its because she taught us well. She exemplified God’s love to us. Her love for God, love for family and caring for the relatives and friends, we all learned those qualities from her.
Our parents sacrificed a lot for their children’s education. Gave up the comfortable life in Malaysia and could have retired at 40s. But they chose to work even harder so that we all can have better opportunities. We thank mom and dad for their sacrifices made. We are blessed because of their hard work. We are blessed because of their faithfulness to God. Mom and dad prayed every morning for the family by name from old to young. Because of their prayers, the children, the grandchildren and great grandchildren are blessed. We thank you mom and dad!
Mom suffered from knee arthritis for many years. Often I called her while driving to work, she would be delighted to hear our voices, tried to cheer her up by diverting her thought to things other than her illness and pain that she was suffering. Most fun was practising my Foochow with her. Other siblings would take the parents out for outings.
Mom was admitted to ICU due to pneumonia. Thanks to my sister Louisa who always took good care of her noticed that she was not breathing well. The 3 weeks she was in ICU, most of the nurses and staff in ICU called her mama. She waved, smiled and thanked them each time they took care of her. Even though she was so sick and weak, she still showed love and appreciation to those who took care of her. We thank all the nurses, doctors and staff in North York General Hospital who took really good care of her. Many of us took turn to be by her side, sister Teresa, flew back from Hawaii, uncle Philip and uncle Ambrose both flew in from Vancouver, because she was so dear to them. Many wishes and prayers from family and friends were sent to her via video messages because of visitation restrictions to cheer her on. But her body became progressively weaker, we knew that the Lord was calling her home. It was just too much suffering for her as she struggled and labored each breath in the last few days. At her final hours, we thanked her as a mother, we prayed for her to go in peace. We sang to her hymns and praises. We knew she was at peace. At the final hours, while she was not able to speak, I sang to her and my sister Teresa asked her did it sound good in Foodchow? “ A Ho Tian Mei? “ She nodded and smiled. That was precious moment, even though she was so weak, she still liked my singing. Everyone of us had special moments with her. She waited for my uncle Ambrose to arrive from Vancouver after 3 hours flight delay just in time to say prayers and read her Psalm 23 to her. She passed peacefully to be with the Lord Saturday, November 13th, 2021 at 8:17pm.
As mom is now passed, we will continue to celebrate her life what she had given us. We will miss and cherish her motherly love forever. Through her love, she taught us Christ’s unconditional love to pass on to generations to come. Losing a loving mother is not easy but with blessed assurance, that we will meet her again in heaven.
We love you mom!
