Grandmothers do not expect to survive decades past their grandchildren. Deaths of the too young are always a tragedy. Yet, when three die on the same day, how does one overcome? Widowed much later, Florence concerned herself with the living, filled her time with constructive things, serving in multiple positions of governance or financing, for the protection of children, for Caritas.

The Fu Hong Society of Hong Kong is an organization devoted to assisting the disabled integrate into everyday life, with hostels, temporary homes, job training, psychiatric and autism services, and working with parents. The society reported the recent death of "Mrs CHUANG, Lipton JP", in their annual report of 2012-2013, at their web site, fuhong.org, calling her a "founding vice-president". (They gave her exact death date. Her birth year was then calculated, based on age at death. That information was found in 2016, this page then entered with those dates, after this writer 's research found her son Jacob's true grave at St. Michael's. The Iowa cemetery where Jacob's wife and the three grandchildren are buried has a second stone for Jacob, but it is a cenotaph, bodiless. In Dec., 2021 , FindaGrave user BenBarnes notified this writer that he had found Mrs. Chuang's and spouse Lipton's shared stone in Hong Kong. It added her Nov. birthday, and had a photograph of the couple. Leaving us a photograph of Jacob's lovely stone, he is a historian for his part of England, author of a book on the towns of Shelf and Halifax in western Yorkshire, listing corrected memorials for soldiers of WW I and WW II at his blog at Wordpress, and citing places to find connected family history, very important in finding graves. We thank him for visiting St. Michael's when making the trip to Hong Kong.)

CHILDREN. Florence's verified children, mentioned in business paperwork and, thus, with birth years known, they included:

Jacob (born 1940, died 1984 in Hong Kong, buried St. Michaels in Happy Valley),
Anthony (1944), Leo (1948),
Christine (1954), Michael (1955), and Vincent (1956).

(It's not clear whether the John Chuang mentioned in some 1988 paperwork was another son, an alternate name for one of the known sons, or a different relative.)

Once adults, several children followed her example in service. Dr. Leo has a public biography, as a member of the provost board of his medical school in Dublin, Ireland (some responsibilities updated to indicate they are former):

"Dr Leo Chuang is a director of Lap Heng Investment Co. Ltd., a family-owned company with real estate holdings in Hong Kong, Vancouver, Sydney and London. He was Managing Director of Lap Heng Co. Ltd., a publicly traded company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Leo graduated from Trinity College Medical School in 1972. He is currently on the board of governors of the Caritas Institute of Higher Education in Hong Kong." (bio as found at tcd.ie, Feb. 1, 2022)

HER SPOUSE, THEIR PLACES. They were definitely an international family.

Was Hong Kong such a tiny place that claustrophobia would push people elsewhere? The Chuangs were ethnic Chinese, not clear if only Cantonese-speaking, or they also knew Mandarin. They were part of a religious minority that fled an unreligious dictatorship on the mainland. They came to the island circa WW II. A Japanese invasion that made its way to the island by 1941 also affected choices open to them.

Florence and her spouse were fortunate later, to live in architecturally remarkable places, once they had prospered in Hong Kong. However, some years passed before then, between the time they left mainland China, escaping dictatorship there, then finally succeeding in the tiny colony of Hong Kong, while it was still under British rule.

Her husband, Lipton, was said to be from a watchmaking family on the Chinese mainland, so a city man, not country. Once re-established in Hong Kong, their business turned into one of making stylish watches, accounting for some family connections with Switzerland, a place known for quality watchmaking. Then, a new watchmaker called Timex changed the rules for their old business.

In the aftermath, son Jacob tried opening a designer couture house. The "made in Hong Kong" label was used by too many inexpensive clothing makers, contradicting the son's wishes to sell both style and quality. The family shifted their focus to real estate, mainly successful, but encountering hard times for a bit, when a local recession hit, something their farming in-laws in America understood.

In 1997 (June 30-July 1), Britain handed the governance of its former colony over to mainland China. Perhaps worried about that, perhaps to resolve problems over some real estate, perhaps as Lipton was sick or weak or merely disinterested, the family arranged, late in 1996, for the dissolution of some of their family companies previously organized in Hong Kong.

She used her nickname (in Chinese characters shown above) in her charitable paperwork. Some translate it as Mrs. Lipton Chuang, but, if counting three words, it may have been Lipton's one-word Chinese name, followed by "wife of ", or maybe "partner of", or something similar? Maybe someone can tell us the literal translation?

Where did she die, under which adult child's care? The family had owned properties in multiple countries. Her children might and did live in more than one, but her own deathplace is not yet clear to this writer. Some, people think she died in Hong Kong, her longest home, where she did her charities. That seems likely, but Vancouver is a strong possibility, as explained below. If dying there, her ashes or body were flown to Hong Kong.

There was business paperwork in other countries, but we find no signs that she claimed citizenship outside China. For many decades, while she had family still living in the States, the family home address was on Headland Road, in Hong Kong, on Repulse Bay. This was very near the cemetery at Happy Valley (St. Michael's) of her son Jacob, who died while his children were still young and living with their mother in Hawaii. Florence and spouse Lipton Chuang are both buried there, their exact graves pinpointed for us very recently, in Dec., 2021, by user BenStables.

Yet, did she die in Vancouver? Not living close-by, her Iowa in-laws lost track of her. After her death, at least two announcements about her estate were filed in Canada, as a way of settling it, with the advertised legal notices coming out of British Columbia. First, in Dec. of 2013, younger children Vincent and Christine were listed as her executors, requesting everyone interested to file against her estate, so the claims could be paid that January. In a second round, taking turns, sons Anthony and Michael were listed as subsequent executors by the same Vancouver lawyer. This time, claims were stipulated as due on or before April 24, 2015, a considerable delay from the first notice, implying properties had been prepared for sale, which takes time.

Both notices listed her as "formerly" of No. 2 Headland Road, her Hong Kong address for some time, but implying she died in B.C. Their residence in Vancouver had once been maintained under the name of spouse Lipton Chuang. Keeping a bit of home in their hearts, they managed to find a neighborhood with a Catholic church that rendered some services in their original Cantonese. Did Vancouver begin as a seasonal second home, used when weather in Hong Kong was expected to be unpleasant, much in the way that US mid-westerners "snowbird" in AZ, FL or TX? Or, was Vancouver intended to be a safe place to retire, should Hong Kong politics turn against its residing Catholics, as had happened back on the mainland? They bought a unit inside an eight-story condo building, its address described as at the St. Moritz, on 39th Avenue West. The architect of the St. Moritz was said to be James K. M. Cheng, a major contributor to the glassy high-rise style known as "Vancouverism", who was still involved in newer projects. If three units per floor, the units were generous in size, so the house in Relapse Bay might not be missed. Photos online show some very pleasant units. Given not everyone would want a high-rise living arrangement, her children may have required many months to find buyers. The property on Headland Road back in Hong Kong was sold some months later, in Nov. of 2015, by Savills, ultimately to be redeveloped, replaced by a higher density arrangement, the house there now gone.

Florence was an active and much-appreciated member of the Catholic community in Hong Kong. Multiple pictures were taken of her there, participating in her activities, after she became a widow of Lipton Chuang. Like Florence, Lipton had also been active in Catholic governance in Hong Kong, as one of the organizers of a church group called Serra. He was measurably older and died accordingly earlier, even though about 97 at his death in 2001. (Old business listings translated out of the original Chinese gave his death year and age. The stones found by Mr. Stables in 2021 were more precise about birth date, but otherwise matched what this writer determined when first researching and writing for this page in 2016-2018.)

Their neighborhood in western Vancouver has been described as Kerrisdale. It was a good choice for them, as the cross street called Trafalgar had a Catholic church occasionally holding special services for the local Cantonese-speaking population.

Multiple of Florence's children continued in that faith, despite moving away. Her three grandchildren by son Jacob Chuang and Iowan Marilyn Dreesman were buried after a Catholic service at St. Cecilia's in Algona.

Florence's daughter-in-law, Marilyn Dreesman, had grown up in Algona, Iowa, daughter of Agnes Brown and Ubbe ("John") Dreesman. She left Algona for varied adventures in education, with a strong interest in the international, ultimately to marry Florence's son, Jacob Chuang. While Marilyn grew up, "living in town", reportedly making trips out to her father's farm land to ride horses, teaching dance lessons as a teen, active in band, her maternal grandparents, Alexander and Hattie Brown, lived just south of Algona, on what had been the Brown Dairy Farm. It would later be declared a "Century Farm", the descendants of the Browns named in 2017 on the century list no longer surnamed Brown.

Florence's grandchildren would have been been taken to see it. That had been done for many of the grandchildren not living in the Algona area?

Florence and Lipton would remember Marilyn and Jacob's children in varied ways. An Iowa newspaper reported they began a center in Hong Kong dedicated to abused children. (Did that refer to what happened to Marilyn's brother when a youth? It's this writer's belief that Marilyn tried to rescue her much younger brother from what was being done to him. Mis-treatment of the brother was suspected by others in the broader family, but they were never allowed much contact in order to verify. With "no one knowing for sure", bits seen very early, more hints later, easy to paint over with pleasant smiles then, a looming wreckage was in motion. Nothing was totally clear to close watchers, but older people sometimes forget that, when they think they are alone with a child, other young children are watching and hearing and will remember, especially what happens to other children. Marilyn's later interventions succeeded for a while, but her brother's new life without their parents was stopped by their parents.)

Marilyn had many cousins on the Brown side, with a number raising children in Algona or neighboring rural parts, then moving away. (These included the author of this and Jacob's obituary, known to FindaGrave as JBrown. Married in Kossuth County; her parents at first tenant-farmed. They would save enough to make a down payment on their first farm, elsewhere, as they turned 30, moving when JB was 9. Ninety minutes away, in the next state north, JB's parents returned to Iowa for visits, saw the Dreesmans perhaps once or twice a year after moving away. Their children in tow, hoping to find someone to play with, were out of luck, Marilyn too much older and always away, her younger brother older, too, but nearer in age. He might be away attending school, but was otherwise always at home, given strict instruction about how to be, others claiming it was all his choice.

JB's parents met Florence and Lipton at the joint funeral of Marilyn and her three children, also attended by Marilyn's housekeeper, who had come from Hawaii. JB's parents thought Florence and Lipton to be friendly, kind and generous people. Expecting Chinese people to have a more Asian faith, such as Buddhism, her Catholic parents were surprised to find Florence and Lipton holding the joint funeral of Marilyn and the grandchildren at St. Cecelia's Catholic church. (They learned, that way, that Catholicism had been the Chuang's religion, as well. They were not aware previously, as Marilyn and Jacob had had two weddings, the Swiss one in a faraway church, the Iowa one, in a govt. office, her parents in attendance, known to be Lutheran, that wedding accordingly private and unchurched. The '"fun wedding" was instead the one at a distance, presumably the one with Marilyn in the buoyant gown shown in the wedding photo sent to our family. Marilyn made her respectful visits to Iowa, annual or seasonal, but otherwise lived apart.)

Florence and Lipton's effort in arranging for facilities to assist other children was noteworthy, given in the memory of their Chuang grandchildren, who died in Iowa, while so young.

NAME NOTE. Florence also went by Cheng Sai Gek, often using her middle initials in her British-styled name, as Florence S. G. The J.P sometimes seen after her surname meant Justice of the Peace.

JB, Rev. Y22, Jan. 31, Feb. 1. PAGE HISTORY. This page added to FindaGrave on Apr 23, 2018. Son Jacob's added 2016. Lipton's page and grave photographs for all three added by BenBarnes, Dec 2021, a Yorkshire, UK, historian, after a visit to Hong Kong. Shared Hindle ancestors of Marilyn Dreesman and JB came from a part of Lancashire that was once in Yorkshire.