Jinyu Lin's Obituary
Jinyu Lin (林金玉), aged 80, of San Mateo died on June 18, 2015 at 09:25 am of Pneumonia. Her husband, daughter and two grandchildren were accompanying her at the bedside during her last moments.She was born on August 28, 1934 in a remote village in Jilin Province of China. She graduated from Northeastern Normal University with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics. On September 30, 1959 she was married to Huarong Piao.She was the youngest of six siblings. She lived a happy and abundant childhood. Her family was stripped of all their wealth in the late 1940’s during the Land Reform of China. As a result she went through a lot of hardships, poverty, cold, hunger, poor health and loss of her mother, during her young adult years. Emerging from all these, with the support of her siblings, especially her eldest brother, she worked hard to become the only college graduate of her family. The most trying period of her life was in the late 1960’s during the culture revolution of China. With her husband being detained as an accused anti-revolutionist, she was sentenced to a remote village in the countryside with her young children, alone. Though the family eventually reunited in the village, they were to remain peasants under supervision until the early 1970’s, when they were given back their original teaching positions in Jilin University. There she devoted her life teaching physics in college as a professor and the Director of the Department of Experimental Physics until her retirement. Coming from a humble background she enjoyed much professional success. She was universally respected and loved by her students and colleagues.She was petite, elegant, serene, beautiful and angelic. Father is the outgoing, strong, funny, charismatic one. Yet when a sudden severe stroke paralyzed him, she was the one who helped him stand up, recover and come back to a normal life with her tremendous will power and belief. Father is forever grateful to her for giving him a real second life. Later on when her health fell, father took such loving care of her till her last days. She was so blessed by love of her husband and family in her entire life.She and father raised three children. As a mother she was always gentle, soft, loving and encouraging. She believed in education and nurtured the love of learning in her children, all of whom went to college and graduate school, raised their own kids and built booming careers for themselves.She was best known for her kindness, affection and generosity for others. She helped many of her nieces and nephews with their schooling. She also helped many she came across even when she wasn’t rich herself. She always readily shared what little she had with genuine compassion.She is survived by her husband, Huarong Piao, sons Chuncheng Piao and Chunze Piao, daughter Sally Hongyu Piao, granddaughters Wenhui Piao, Alexandra Liu and Wenhua Piao, grandsons Eric Liu, Runze Piao and Wenbo Piao.
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