Sookyoul Jung

6.25

…

TV

Birth:

Although officially recorded as being born in 1940, our mother was in fact born on January 25, 1937, in Chooncheon, Gangwon Province. In Korean age, she is 89 this year. She lived through the final years of the Japanese occupation, during which she was forced to use a Japanese name and sing "Kimigayo," and at the age of fourteen she survived the horrors of the Korean War-bombings, fear, and the long road of evacuation.

Education:

Our maternal grandmother held an unusually progressive belief for her time-that girls, too, must receive a proper education. Following that conviction, Mother walked four hours every day-two hours each way-to attend school from before dawn. She graduated from Chooncheon Education School, an institution established during the Japanese occupation to train elementary school teachers. In 1959, at the age of twenty-three, she began her career as an educator in Cheolwon County, Gangwon Province.

Marriage:

On December 15, 1965, Mother married her first and last love, our father, Mr. Jihwa Jung. Although she was three years older than he, she recognized in him a gentle and virtuous character, and bravely proposed to him first. Together they raised two sons and one daughter. This year, on December 15, they would have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Their six decades of unwavering companionship stand as an extraordinary example to their children.

Teaching Career and Devotion to Education:

Mother served faithfully as an elementary school teacher for forty years, until her retirement in 1998, missing scarcely a single day. She consistently modeled integrity, kindness, and compassion for her students. She devoted special attention to those who struggled academically, often staying late to tutor them, and she poured even more love into the rural children who came from impoverished homes.

For seven years she lived apart from her husband while teaching in remote mountain villages of Gangwon Province-places so isolated that even electricity had not yet reached them-where she not only taught but also farmed. Over the course of four decades, she taught at many schools, eventually settling in Daejeon with her family.

Faith and Personal Interests:

In 1985, Mother was baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and remained a devoted member of the Samsung Ward in Daejeon for many years. She and Father were endowed together in the temple, and, to her lifelong joy, her own mother was also baptized that same year.

Mother had deep expertise and passion for cultivating cacti, flowering plants, orchids, and bonsai, as well as collecting ornamental stones. Whatever she chose to pursue, she devoted herself wholeheartedly and often achieved an expert level of mastery.

Immigration to the United States:

After retiring at the age of sixty-one, Mother began the third chapter of her life when she moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, to be near her two sons. From that time on, she enjoyed a life with greater emotional peace, yet her disciplined approach to living remained unchanged. She developed an interest in traditional Korean folk painting and found renewed joy in exploring various forms of art.

The Purpose of Her Life, Shown Through Her Example:

Mother never sought to showcase herself in any deliberate way. Yet, through observing her life over many years, her children came to understand an answer to the question: What is the purpose of human existence?

Mother dedicated her entire life to nurturing young souls and to the early education of children. Believing that a person's character is largely formed by the time they complete elementary school, she devoted forty years to shaping the moral foundation of countless students. By living faithfully in her present circumstances and by lifting others-especially the elementary school students-she fulfilled her purpose on this earth.

Blessed Health and Her Third Act of Life:

Mother took great interest in maintaining her health and enjoyed many years of wellness. Whenever a TV program shared advice on healthy foods or lifestyle, she would watch with utmost focus and diligently write notes in her small notebook. She lived with discipline-rising early, preparing breakfast for Father, and always observing punctuality during her teaching years. Her and Father's lifelong good health was in many ways the fruit of her simple, orderly, and conscientious way of living. Although she experienced some dementia in her later years, she passed peacefully in her sleep, without pain, on the final day of her earthly journey.

A Life Well Lived:

The first thirty years of Mother's life were the hardest; the next thirty were less burdensome; and the final twenty-nine, though lived with the same humility and diligence, were marked by incomparable happiness. She approached life with reverence, deep sincerity, and unwavering devotion to her family. To her children, she was a lighthouse during times of difficulty, a steadfast lamplight that never failed to illuminate the path.

We, her children, were blessed beyond measure because of her, and we give thanks for the immeasurable gift of having her as our mother.

We believe with all our hearts that this devoted and endlessly diligent woman, now reunited with loved ones who went before her, watches over her family from a place of peace in the heavens. And we trust that, one day, we will be reunited with her again.