King Lien Liu

King Lien Liu, age 101, passed away at home, surrounded by the love and care of her family.
Kingâ??s name was the Chinese word for gold, and she personified the beauty and strength of it, throughout her century of life. Early and lifelong hardship forged an innate brilliance in beauty and intelligence, an everlasting steadfastness, and a fierce endurance, as well as a creative and adaptive malleability. She was a complex mix of strict tradition and pragmatism, and one also taken to adventure and discovery. Seemingly fearless, she accepted fear, pain and suffering, while creating spaces of joy, exploration and learning.
King was incredibly dedicated to her family, and they orbited around her. She led the family with her husband Teh Pao, of 70 years, until he passed 11 years ago. Together they were the parents of 7 children. She and her husband were shrewd in business. She labored in the preparation of the gastronomic alchemy of family dinners, and holiday feasts and spectacles. She loved marathon mahjong games with her husband, daughters and daughter-in-law. She was a multi-state casino player, travelling by plane, bus, or car. Whether winning at Spanish blackjack, or at the gym or walking into her 90â??s, she was constantly in motion.
King realized all of this without having been allowed a formal education in reading or writing in either Chinese or English, nor did she have the opportunity to learn English fully. She came to the US and immediately began to build a life and a large family, as well as a long-standing family business. She labored 16 hour days in the business for decades. For this, she was nominated by her first American-born daughter, and was named Mother of the Year by the local paper. The winning and apt descriptive of her being: â??she works very very very very hardâ?�.
She was born and raised in a village in Yangzhou China, the oldest of 5 children. An illness in the village took her own mother when King was aged 20. She married Teh Pao in 1945. In 1949, Teh Pao had to separate from King and their daughter, age 3, and baby son, due to the onset of Mao Zedongâ??s rule, and the need to find work. King was left to fend for herself, and the survival of her oldest daughter and son, in a harsh patriarchy and the onset of communism and starvation, for almost 10 years.
Later, King and her children clandestinely fled to Hong Kong by sea, and were finally reunited with Teh Pao in the United States in 1960. They settled in Medford, MA, where she lived for 60 years. They expanded their family with 5 more children and built up a well-known business that they sustained for over 50 years.
She loved and was adored by her 11 grandchildren, and her 5 great-grandchildren.
King leaves her daughter Pauline Fung and her husband (Sai-Wah), her son John and his wife (Patty); her daughters Jody and Cathy; her sons, David and wife (Jill), Paul and wife (Julie), and Lawrence and his wife (Tina); her grandchildren, Jimmy, Susan, Chris, Jennifer, Elizabeth, Vanessa, Samantha, Lorilai, London, Levi, and Milo; and her great-grandchildren, William, Anneliese, Serena, Emma, and Rowan.
Visiting hours will be held on Friday, August 15th, from 4 through 8 PM in the Dello Russo Funeral Home, 306 Main St., Medford. Relatives and friends are respectfully invited to attend. Burial will be held privately at a later date.