Helen Wu

Helen Hoh Wu

November 4, 1918 - September 30, 2015

Helen Hoh Wu was born to Harry Sai Hoh and Woo Shee in Canton, China. She immigrated with her mother to the United States in 1921 when her father co-owned and managed a Grant Avenue shop selling Chinese products. The family had nine children, all of whom lived above the store in a two-bedroom apartment. Everyone worked hard to sustain the family even if that meant making individual sacrifices.
As a teenager, Helen Hoh Wu worked for an army family in San Francisco as a housekeeper cleaning house and cooking for her employer. She also operated the elevator at one of the San Francisco hotels. She attended public schools, including Girls High School where she met some of her lifelong friends, all of whom like her, were fully bilingual in Chinese and English.
Her life changed dramatically when she met Thomas Wai Sun Wu at the Chinatown YWCA where he played piano in a dance band. She fell in love with him and gave him encouragement while he attended the University of California Dental School in San Francisco from which he graduated in 1939. Helen and Thomas married in 1940. Soon after when he started his dental practice in Chinatown, she helped him as his assistant. She continued to support him when he gained leadership in many non-profit, fraternal, political, and professional groups.
However, in 1941 after suffering sharp pain in her eyes, she was diagnosed with Harada's disease and soon after, other eye diseases that eventually left her legally blind and later on, totally blind. Despite her physical disability, she managed to raise a daughter and son--Laurene and Elliott Wu--with the same emphasis placed on hard work, family values, and pride in heritage that she learned from her own childhood.
While she did not have an opportunity for higher education, Helen Wu found that the Lighthouse for the Blind with its talented teachers and staff, provided her with intellectual stimulation. She loved a semantics class to the point where she became very interested in English words, their origins, and meaning. She took up Spanish. She learned to make jewelry. She received piano lessons from a fellow client at the Lighthouse. Her life with the Lighthouse was rich and full as she made friends with teachers and students alike. She also embraced Christianity and attended True Sunshine Episcopal Church in San Francisco.
In her older years, Helen Wu loved to listen to the news and the talking books that she received regularly from the San Francisco Public Library. She enjoyed music. After her husband died in 2004, she was able to live at home with the help of caregivers Kelly, Myrna, Pearl, Ruby, Virginia, and Winnie, and the wonderful medical expertise of Dr. Clare Siu and the UCSF Housecalls team which included Drs. Josette Rivera and Rebecca Conant. Rev. Merry Chan Ong of the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour gave her spiritual support. All of these people provided care that enabled her to die peacefully in the familiar surroundings of her home.
She leaves behind her daughter Laurene, son-in-law Charles McClain, grandson Chris McClain and wife Carolyn, grand-daughter Janine Wu, great-grand-daughters Alice and Katherine McClain, great-grandsons Elliott, Koliah, and Fletcher Wu Cole-Heavens, her sisters Annie, Janice, and Melanie, and numerous relatives in the Hoh and Wu families.
A Remembrance for her will be held at 11 a.m. at the Northbrae Community Church at 941 The Alameda, Berkeley, California, on Saturday, November 28, 2015. In lieu of flowers, donations may be given to either the Lighthouse for the Blind at 214 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, CA 94112, or the Episcopal Church of Our Savior at 1011 Harrison St., Oakland, CA 94607. Please note on your checks that donations are being made in Helen Wu's memory.