Today is our 34th wedding anniversary and this morning Carl said to me, “You know, this will be the first time that we won’t receive an anniversary card and check from your mother.” Yes, she was so good about remembering all her children’s and grandchildren’s birthdays and anniversaries and never failed to send a card and a check. The joy we have of celebrating our anniversary is just a shade tinged with sadness.

So many people have also asked me about her memorial service that I am sharing the memorial program, which you can view by clicking here: Dorothy Chiu Au memorial program. Carl counted over 200 people who came to the church service, and we were a little worried that we had not ordered enough food! But like the Biblical story of the loaves and fishes, we had plenty of food left over.

Each of the five siblings were assigned tasks to complete, and mine was to type the program and create a photo tribute board which was displayed at the reception.

Carl’s job was to make the closing remarks and to invite everyone to the reception which followed the service.

I think my mother would have really loved the music. The opening prelude was played by Pavel Petrov, my mother’s piano teacher. One of her Steinway pianos was moved to the church (because theirs wasn’t very good) for this purpose and my mother specifically asked that Pavel play. Yao Wang, a cellist, played Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise.” In the later years, my mother invited graduate music students from USC to stay in her home (for free) and both Pavel and Yao were some of those students.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zLcopj_Kd0&w=560&h=349] I finally figured out how to embed a YouTube video in this blog and offer again my sister’s tribute to my mother. It’s a song she wrote for my mother’s 90th birthday. People asked her how she could get through the performance without breaking down, and I told everyone, “Practice, Practice, Practice!”

I do wish to thank each and everyone who sent cards and emails of condolence. We must have received over 200 emails, maybe more! We will be donating monies received to my mother’s favorite charity, Turning Point Ministries. She went on five trips with their program, including cruises to Alaska, the Caribbean, and tours of the Holy Land, and to Oberammergau, Germany for the Passion Play.