Sunsook "Sue" Cho

1949 - 2020

Sunsook Cho, "Sue"

It is with sorrow that the family of Sunsook "Sue" Cho announces her passing. Sunsook was born on February 5, 1949 in Suwon, South Korea, and passed peacefully on October 14, 2020 in the company of family. Over her 71 years, she traveled an immense distance from impoverished war-torn Korea to the United States, where she built a loving family and community. As a nurse, business owner, and later as a court interpreter in her retirement years, she spent her entire life caring for and helping others in times of need. Petite but commanding in stature, her charm and shining spirit enabled her to connect with everyone she met, from homeless veterans, to elderly immigrants, and even the U.S. Secretary of State. She saved money scrupulously by refusing to buy herself anything at full price, while ensuring her children received every educational opportunity possible. Only once they had reached college did she allow herself to indulge in her favorite pastimes, finally purchasing cello lessons, a prized professional-grade table tennis paddle, and calligraphy brushes. And she reveled in the things money cannot buy: time with her children and grandson, cooking with family, knitting and sewing, and international Skype video-chats with her four equally formidable sisters.

She was proud that she was able to realize the dreams of her generation. As a young girl growing up in the shadow of war, she lived through extreme poverty: she recalled frostbite, malnutrition, and desperate times when her family could not afford medicine, rent, or school fees. Despite many hardships, she excelled as a student, distinguished by her intelligence, hard work, and integrity, and she won an opportunity to attend college, an unusual achievement for those from her vocational high school. She emigrated to Alberta, Canada as a nurse, where she cared for rural and First Nations patients and doted on her nephews, David and Ken, while supporting her family in Korea. After her marriage, she moved to Illinois and then Arizona, raised a family, and built a career and two thriving businesses, and became an American citizen. She delighted in her travels to eleven countries, visits to Yale, Harvard, Oxford and Stanford where her children studied, and behind-the-scenes tours at the places her children worked, including the United Nations, federal courthouses, and the White House. No matter where she went, she stayed true to her roots and her unwavering moral compass, and passed down the lessons of resourcefulness and love she had learned from a tight-knit family that had survived hard times.

In her last years, Sunsook enjoyed the constant and loving support of her family, friends, and caregivers at Hospice of the Valley in Phoenix and Blue Ridge Hospice in Virginia, where she spent the final month of her life with her children and grandson. Until the very end, she spoke every day to family members all around the world, watched the latest Korean dramas, and stayed engaged with world news. She is survived by her husband Hyung-Yul, her children Eunice and Albert and their partners, her grandson Anthony, her four sisters, and numerous nephews in Canada and Korea. A scholarship is being established in her name.

Arrangements are being handled by Omps Funeral Home, Amherst Chapel, 1600 Amherst Street, Winchester, VA 22601.