Maria Hui- Mei Fu( Nee Shih)

Mom was born in Taipei, Taiwan, on October 23rd, 1932.

She grew up in a middle class Christian family with her parents, five siblings, and paternal grandmother. Life was blissful until the Second World War started. Taiwan, being a Japanese colony, was deeply affected by the war. During the war, she lost her younger brother due to illness. Three years later, at age of 16, she also lost her mother. She was the closest to her mother till the very end.

After the war, she graduated from Taipei First Girls’ High School. She had always kept in touch with several of her classmates through cards and phone calls. In 1953, she married Dad. They had two daughters, Rebecca and Dorothy, and a son, Samuel.

In 1963, they immigrated to Brazil, living in Sao Paulo. In 1970, they moved again and this time to Toronto, Canada. Life was challenging, as both Mom and Dad were not proficient in English. However, they were very hard working individuals. Mom enrolled in the fashion design course at George Brown College, and graduated with high honors. Afterwards, she worked as an assistant plant manager for Riviera Slacks Inc., until her retirement. In this job, besides her knowledge of garment sewing, she was able to utilize all her language skills, as many of the employees were from Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese backgrounds.

Although Mom grew up in a Christian family, at our home, we never discussed spiritual matters. Mom and Dad never shared the Gospel with us. Occasionally we went to church. Though she wanted very much for each of us to follow the Lord, it seemed all she could do was to pray for us. In 1975 while Dorothy was away at college, she accepted the Lord as Savior. Mom was very happy about it. After Dorothy returned, Mom decided we needed to start going to church. First we went to an English speaking church, but she couldn’t fully understand the sermons in English. Dorothy met some Chinese Christian students at university who introduced us to the Toronto Chinese Community Church, now Toronto Mandarin Chinese Community Church. TMCCC was her home church and she was a dedicated member serving in the choir. She joined the Golden Age Fellowship and prayer meetings diligently. She took her duty very seriously as a member of the intercessory prayer team.

She was predeceased by her husband, David Ming-Te Fu in 1996.

In 2018, she suffered a minor stroke, followed by seizures in 2020 and 2022. The last two years she had been bedridden.

On September 3rd, she left us and went to be with our Lord. She leaves her daughters Rebecca and Dorothy, son Samuel, son- in- law James Li, daughter-in-law Carol Fu, granddaughters Anastasia Li and Felicia Li, grandsons- in- law Ron Chow and Bronco Lam, and great-grand-son Noah Lam.

Everywhere Mom went during the course of a week: bank, grocery stores, pharmacy, church, etc., she connected with people, and exuded sincere interest and love towards people she met. That is her gift, and others don’t forget her.

We long to see you again one day, Mom, in the house of our Lord!