鄭吳玉葉女士安息主懷  

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鄭吳玉葉女士,19211125日生,. 是淡水人吳添基八個子女之一. 1942220, 與同鎮鄭子昌醫師結婚,共同在淡水經營興亞醫院。第二年子鄭宏銘出生。19441月,鄭醫師被徵召去為日本海軍服務,19441月,其所乘神靖丸向西貢駛去,1945112日上午955,神靖丸在西貢東頭頓市(Cape Saint Jacques)遭美軍魚雷擊沉.船上被征召台灣人醫師及醫療工作人員大部份隨船殉職,鄭醫師是其一,那時玉葉才24歲,子宏銘2歲。其後母子相依為命,生活是够辛苦了,但她堅強任護士職,一步步升成台大醫學院的護士長,1953年去纽西蘭WELLINGTON醫院念研究院(外科護理)又教學,回到台北在美國海軍醫學研究第二單位做了14年,1963年歸依基督教。1972年移民到美國,1974年,子鄭宏銘(眼科醫師)已經成家立業,媳婦趙小怡相夫教子,她含貽弄孫鄭融樂融融。直至200862日去世,享壽86歲。其告別禮拜於66日在波士頓華人聖經教會舉行。


Eulogy: 自我歡悅自我安寧自我驚懼就是天意

 

Mrs Stella Yu-Yeh Wu Cheng鄭吳玉葉女士 was born on Nov 25, 1921. She was one of the eight children of Mr and Mrs Tien-Chi Wu吳添基 from the Town of Danshui 淡水in Taiwan.

On Feb 20, 1942, she married Dr Tze-Chang Cheng 鄭子昌醫師also from Danshui, and together they started a small yet successful medical practice興亞醫院. In late 1943, their only son was born. This happy life was not to last because by then, the Pacific War had entered its last throes with the Japanese in defeat at all fronts. Dr Cheng, together with 58 other physicians and 189 medical assistants were drafted to serve in the Imperial Japanese Navy. On Dec 1, 1944, they boarded a cargo ship, the Shinsei Maru 神靖丸and sailed for Saigon西貢. On Jan 12, 1945, Shinsei Maru was torpedoed by a US Navy Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter-plane and sunk. Dr Cheng and 246 colleagues went down with the ship in a harbor near Saigon called Cape Saint Jacques頭頓市. That marked the beginning of a new life for Mrs Cheng. In fact, a life devoted to raising her only son.

Mrs Cheng had a very distinguished nursing career. She went from a staff nurse at National Taiwan University Hospital to a WHO-sponsored post-graduate study at Wellington Hospital in New Zealand, teaching at NTU Dept of Nursing, all the way to the Chief Nurse, ironically, of US Navy Medical Research Unit 2 in Taipei. In deciding whether to work for the US Navy, she finally understood that 自我歡悅自我安寧自我驚懼就是天意 – be self-reliant and accept whatever may come your way. The last, a position she held for 14 years before emigrating to the US in 1972. Along the way, she became fluent, in addition to her native Taiwanese, the languages of Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and English. By 1974, her son has finished graduate studies and started a family of his own. Mrs Cheng then joined the family and helped her daughter-in-law in taking care of her only grandson. The grandma and grandson team often went fishing together in a small pond near Winchester town center.

Throughout her life, she had never been bitter, no self-pity, never complained about the hardship of being a single parent. Yet she was able to pull through time after time. Often because she was willing to move forward, not dwelling in the past. In fact, she was always impatient, always ready to go before everyone. Even when going out to dinner together with the family, she was always the first one out the door. In her later years, what she enjoyed most was watching and recording video tapes. She had no problem switching to CDs and DVDs as new technologies did not faze her at all. It was during one of those non-stop CD-watching sessions, she noticed a pain in her lower back. Her doctor finally figured out it was a rare form of inoperable tumor. Being such a strong person, she never hesitated and endured a month and half of radiation therapy to drive the pain away. In the end, her body was simply too frail to fully recover.

Mrs. Cheng was fiercely independent. Her life was full of vitality, eagerness to learn, and total organization. A role model for us all to survive and succeed in an often hostile world. On June 2, Mrs Cheng finally re-united with her first and only love, Dr Tse-Chang Cheng, 63 years after they were separated by the war. She was 86.

May she rest in peace.

 

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