Bang Hung Trieu's Obituary
Yiea Yiea was a kind, gentle, loving soul. He always wanted the best for his family and just us to be happy. He lived a good long life and I’m happy I made him proud by graduating college and finding a job. When I think back to memories of Yiea Yiea, I remember a jolly old man who’s always talking, conversing, laughing, with either tea or a beer in his hand. He was full of life and seemed satisfied with life. Yiea Yiea was over weight, but he seemed happy, healthy, and vibrant.Yiea Yiea and Ma Ma always took care of my sister and me when we were younger; he would baby sit us. I remember back in the Oakland house, the one with the random shed in the back yard, we would sleep on the living room floor while waiting for our parents to come pick us up and Yiea Yiea would tell us Chinese folk stories like of the moon goddess or monkey king, or that one story with the moons and arrows (is that the moon goddess one).He also took care of my little cousins like Fu Jai (Jonathan) and Mui Mui (Sandy). I remember back then when Yiea Yiea would feed Fu Jai. He had just made a bowl of won ton noodle soup and he would take a bite out of it, chew it up, then spit it back out on the spoon to feed little Fu Jai. I thought it was pretty gross and funny at the same time.Yiea Yiea was a kind man with a gentle soul. He dind’t seem to have any urgency to go anywhere or do anything. He didn’t get mad or upset. I can’t really remember a time where he got mad or scolded my sister or me. Or maybe we were just really well behaved kids. He just took life as it was and made the best out of it. He lived a good long life and he will always be the happy smiling grandfather, talking really loudly, with a beer in his hands in my memories. Daughter Samantha’s feelings about her Grandfather below:When I remember my grandfather, whom we called Yie Yie, I am brought back to a fond time in my childhood. Before my sister and I were old enough t o go to school, Yie Yie and our grandmother, Ma Ma, often took care of us when our parents were away at work. Ma Ma loved us through discipline and structure and Yie Yie loved us through mischief and fun. There was a brief phase in which he let us drink Coca Cola through a baby bottle though we were too old for bottles. When we heard sounds of the front door opening, signaling that Mommy or Ba Ba was coming home, he would hide the bottle behind the living room curtain, then stealthily disposed of the evidence while we distracted Mommy. Needless to say, this didn’t last very long and Mommy scolded us when she found out, but in that short experience, it thrilled me to no end that an adult would play along in the schemes of a toddler.We upturned couch cushions into forts and he would feed us lunch in our forts or carpet-tents. We would empty the pantry and build castles from canned food, raid our grandmother’s shoe closets and line them up and piled them up in the middle of the hallway. We would try to feed strange inedibles to our uncle’s large arowana fish. We were troublemakers, but Yie Yie never made us feel like a burden. He lovingly and patiently allowed our imagination and curiosity thrive.Through the years, Yie Yie’s house has always been a warm and eventful place, full of his many children and grandchildren running amuck. Full of food, people and laughter. We will all remember his gentle and loving presence; our dear patriarch is deeply loved by many and will be deeply missed.
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