鄭吳玉葉女士,1921年11月25日生,.
是淡水人吳添基八個子女之一.
1942年2月20日,
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。1944年1月,鄭醫師被徵召去為日本海軍服務,1944年1月,其所乘神靖丸向西貢駛去,1945年1月12日上午9點55分,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2008年6月2日去世,享壽86歲。其告別禮拜於6月6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.